Synopsis: The students want to get to know the new girl, but strangely it's as if they have just noticed her, because she isn't really new at all....

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter One
The not-so-new Girl at school.

********************************

"Unbelievable, look at him, I mean her." Remarked one.

"It was a pretty good job, I gotta admit."

"I don't get it."

"You must be retarded. How in the goddess do you manage to pull off a three-point-five Grade average is beyond me."

I am NOT retarded. I'm just... naive."

"Whatever. You two stand there and bicker, I'm going to go talk to her."

*****************************************************************

All day she had felt eyes on her. Though she knew they were the same classmates from each and every day before, she knew that the rules had changed and she was the only one who really knew what those rules were. Everyone else was searching their mind to figure out what was different, and failing.

Study hall was a relief for her. The large, open cafeteria and small class size meant she had her own table to herself. She had always taken the corner table, allowing her to see anyone approaching. She attributed this to simple paranoia. Today it was especially comforting, because thanks to the events that occurred over the weekend, she was now lacking in a quality that she didn't realize she had reveled in before, Anonymity.

Today she had been asked, nearly implored by two members of the cheer squad to sit at their lunch table, on the way to her usual place. They had never spoken to her before, and she wished that they hadn't decided to change their mind today.

She was thankful that the teachers that administered over the fifty minute period that ended her school day did not allow chatting above whispers, so she wouldn't have to converse with anyone unless they bothered to sit right there at her table.

She had been holding a large book against the edge at an angle, but it was tiring on her arms, so she laid it flat on the table and bent forward over it to continue, only to have her long hair fall into the way.

Cursing quietly, she pulled it back behind her neck.

Two boys a few tables away, who had been staring at her, began drooling profusely.

"Oh gawd, look at that Mikey."

"I see it man. What I wouldn't give to have a date with her."

"Oh, like she'd want you drooling all over her. They don't call it a date when you tie her up in the back of your van, tear her clothes off and plow her row."

"Shut up!" said Mike. "Not like she'd date you either."

"Yeah, but a man can dream."

She was an exceptional beauty. Her long, flowing hair, the color of cocoa, spilled halfway down her back. She wore relaxed jeans and a cotton T-shirt, which was draped over her ample chest and tucked into her pants.

Her feminine curves were not hidden, but not pronounced either. Her choice in clothing accented comfort as opposed to showing off the dimensions of her hips, bust and legs.

She also looked older than her eighteen years of age. She had the face and body of a twenty-one year old woman, who could have possibly been a model.

Her eyes were the most exotic part of her appearance. Depending on the angle, they were either royal blue or a deep violet.

The final bell rang, signaling the end of classes for the day, and she sighed relief. She decided to just remain seated and keep reading instead of attempting the grueling task of fighting her way down the entire length of the main hallway to her locker. So she returned to her book, and cursed as her hair fell into her face again.

She barely had time to regret her decision as she noticed someone making a beeline through the round tables and misplaced chairs directly toward her.

This boy wasn't any of those she had hung out with only the previous week, but she knew exactly who he was. Not a stoner type, or a gamer, and not a member of the football team either, whom she was already prepared to deal with. This was a surprise though not a pleasant one. She cursed under her breath as she should have remembered.

This individual held a smile so insincere that it looked forced.
The type of cretin who felt every woman was merely a prize, or a notch on their belt. The Player.

She clenched her teeth and tried to bury her nose in her book, as to pretend she didn't see him. this only seemed to spur him on and he increased his pace.

He stopped in front of her table, then took a moment to give his most convincing, 'I'm just passing by' pose. He began looking under his fingernails for grime while trying to stare off in the direction he now faced, which he had conveniently turned enough to look as though he wasn't there to speak to her at all.

"I suppose if I have time later tonight, I might think about letting you go out with me." He remarked into the air, as if in passing.

She turned the page, not even looking up or acknowledging him.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat with a great deal more effort than was necessary.

Without looking up, she reached into her bag, pulled out a tissue and held it out toward him. "Need one?"

"So you did hear me? What's the deal girl? Did you not understand me?"

She looked up and noticed the lack of people in the vicinity. "Does that actually work? The, suppose if I have time later? That and this whole I'm just passing by routine? Look where you are standing. You had to come almost one hundred feet out of your way just to speak near me. Who falls for this, seriously?"

"Yeah yeah, I'm making myself late here too. Can you hurry and say yes."

"No."

"Whaddya mean No?"

"No, as in I'm not interested in going out with you. Please leave me alone."

"I can't believe you said no. Do you have any idea how busy I am? I am making time for you in my busy schedule...."

"... of dating other girls," she remarked.

He didn't even pause as he continued. "Yes, of dating other girls, and you can't even be reasonable. I..." As he stopped mid-sentence, realizing he had introduced his mouth to the taste of his Nike Air Jordans.

"Well, I'm glad you can admit that."

"Hey, that's not true."

"Oh, I've heard your dick is handled more than the joystick on the old street fighter game at the gas station down the street."

"Where did you hear that?"

"hmmm, I think you were bragging about how many scores you had at lunch,.... every day,... for the last two weeks."

"Dammit, how could you hear that?"

"Because I have always sat at the same table, which happens to be this one and you usually sit at that one at lunch," jerking her thumb toward the one on her right. "It's easy to hear about your conquests, you're quite loud."

"You aren't a dyke or something?"

"I'm not answering that. My sexual preference shouldn't have anything to do with this conversation. I do not wish to date you because the rumor is you like using roofies and you have given your last two dates herpes."

He blushed severely, while getting upset and leaned over the table.

"You won't even go out? There is gunna be a killer party tonight."

"I'm sure there is, but I'm not a drinker."

"Still, it's a party, you don't have to drink there."

"I'm sure, but I have lots of homework. I'll never get it done if I go out. You understand, don't you?"

"Yeah, whatever." As he walked away, he muttered "frigid bitch" under his breath.

Terri sighed. She made a mental note to practice more excuses for next time, as doubtfully this was the last time she would deal with him.

She turned to survey her space once again and then noticed more people headed her way. Again her feeling of dread resurfaced.

"Is there something I can do for you three?" she asked.

This group were clad in the outfits of the school pep squad. They were cheerleaders, and their leader was carrying a small stack of uniforms.

"These are for you, Terri."

"What are these?" Terri asked innocently, knowing full well what the stack contained.

"They are cheerleader uniforms silly," replied the girl.

"Am I supposed to wash these? Oh, I'm not very good at sewing either, any rumors to the contrary are sorely mistaken."

"No Terri, you don't have to wash em or fix them, you're supposed to wear them." The girl was being so genuinely nice, she had obviously missed Terri's attempt to get her angry.

"Wear these? But I'm not a cheerleader. Wait, is this a round- about way of asking me to join the squad?"

The girl's eyes perked up and she responded cheerfully, "Of course. We'd be happy to have you."

"I thought you held tryouts or something." Terri half asked and half sarcastically remarked.

"Well, we do, but for some reason we didn't see you there," the girl responded happily, completely missing the jab again.

"This is what you were trying to say to me earlier right?"

"That's right, but you were busy. It's okay though."

"Can I think about it? Joining I mean?"

"Sure can!" She chirped, then handed the stack to Terri anyway.
"We have practice tomorrow afternoon in the gym. Just show up, and don't forget those."

With that the cheerleaders turned and walked off, chatting on about something else.

Terri sighed, took the stack and set them down next to her as she sat back in her seat.

... only to notice yet another person approaching.

Terri waited for Allyssa to reach the table then watched as she pulled out a chair and sat down.

Terri recognized her as one of the local goth girls. Wearing black lipstick, eyeliner, and with a pale complexion giving her a perfect contrast as to appear dead, or almost.

Her clothes were attire fit for the stereotype. Black shirt, skirt and fishnet stockings disappearing into large combat boots. She wore a pair of small black gloves that had a few fingers missing randomly.

The only spots of color were the large violet dyed stands of hair nearly over each ear.

Terri could only see one of the girl's two eyes, but neither were looking at her directly, instead, they were focused on her hands, which were clasped in front of her.

"Can I help you?" Terri asked, her questioning tone giving away only the slightest hint of surprise and intrigue.

"You really shouldn't mouth the words from that book there, you could accidentally set off some of the magic."

Terri eeked, slammed the book shut and thrust it into her bag by her feet. "What magic?" She tried to ask innocently while looking down at the tabletop.

"You look nice, by the way. Impressive spell work. May I ask who turned you into a hottie?"

Terri suddenly looked up. "You mean, you know?!" She exclaimed the question.

"Shhh, calm down. Yes I know. I know I'm not supposed to, but I was partially protected Friday night when that charm went off. So I've been waiting all weekend just to speak with you."

Suddenly Terri's eyes were filled with tears. "You remember who I was? You aren't like everyone else?"

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" the girl asked.

Terri suddenly stood up, grabbed her bag, and took off at a brisk pace out of the cafeteria and down the hallway. She was nearly running, with tears streaming down her face.

Allyssa stood up, crossed her arms and started walking in pursuit of Terri, but at a very leisurely pace. "Something is very wrong here, and it isn't just the fact that she was male last Friday."

*****************************************************************

Samantha and Jennifer, Allyssa's two Gothic cohorts, were quick to rejoin her.

"Nice work Allyssa, what did you say to make her run like that?"
snipped Jen.

"I asked her who the spell caster was. Someone did some quality work and I was curious as to whom."

"I thought you didn't care. We were told to find out from the council. You just up and sprang that question on her?"

"What if she doesn't remember being a boy?" Samantha commented idly. "I mean what if the charm affected her too?"

Allyssa shook her head. "Her response about me remembering, and 'No one else' convinced me she wasn't targeted by the charm."

"So where do you think she went?" Asked Jen.

"Oh, I don't think, I know." as Allyssa strolled further down the hall. "She just ran out the south doors and is heading for the bleachers for the football field."

*****************************************************************

Allyssa calmly climbed the bleacher seats, like steps but with exaggerated gaps between then, until she reached Terri sitting on the top.

She sat down near the girl, who was wiping her eyes. "I'm sorry if I upset you. I didn't realize you were a victim. Maybe I can help. Do you know who did this to you?"

Terri turned toward Allyssa, and for a moment her eyes seemed lit with an unnatural fire. With gritted teeth, she seethed out, "You don't understand. 'I' did this to me. I made myself this way and made everyone else think I've always been a girl. Even my parents. They don't even realize what's wrong."

Allyssa was taken back. "You did this to yourself?"

"YES!" snapped Terri.

After a moment to calm herself, Allyssa carefully replied. "I'm sorry for hounding you, but may I ask how?"

"I found a sheet of paper with weird words on it, I thought it was old part of Mom and Dad's act, but when I read it aloud there was this burst of light and when I woke up, I looked like this!" The last words reflected her anger and surprise.

"And how did you cast the charm spell?"

"What are you talking about? I didn't cast any other spell." Terri blurted out, this line of questioning both seemed to upset and frustrate her further.

Allyssa was about to shout out, but instead took a deep breath. "Terri, a charm spell is like the Jedi mind trick, you know how that works right?"

"The Jedi mind trick? the whole 'These are not the droids..' kinda thing?"

"Yeah, it's like that. You see, there was a HUGE charm spell cast Friday night, that is affecting everyone, making them believe that you have always been a girl. I happened to have been somewhat protected, enough so that I know what the charm did but that I'm not falling for it. I was just a little curious as to who cast it."

Terri looked at her, and wiped her eyes. "I think I did that too, all at the same time I changed. It was all one spell."

"One spell? Why do you think that?"

"Because I have been reading these magic books all weekend and I think..." and pausing, Terri opened her book-bag and pulled out a notebook, and opened it.

Upon the page was scribbled notes and nearly nine lines of a spell.

"After I woke up I found the paper was burned, but I can still see the image of the words on it in my head. I have tried to copy it down again, so that I can figure out how to reverse it."

Allyssa looked at the page. Her facial expression scewed a moment as her eyes widened, then slitted as she tried to under stand what she was seeing. Finally she settled on replying, "You mean the spell was that long?"

"Yeah, what's so important about that?"

"I'm not a great spell caster myself, I stick with short, easy stuff. Longer spells are harder to cast, but they have bigger results. Case in point."

"Oh." Said Terri. She was silent for a few minutes before asking, "I'm stuck like this aren't I?"

Allyssa scooted over, and put her arms around Terri, causing said receipiant to tense up and ask, "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to make you feel better. You are all alone in this, and frankly you don't need to be. You want help in changing back, right?"

"Why do you want to help me?"

"Because I'm a decent person, and you're a victim of some tragedy. You didn't mean to do this, but now you have to deal with the consequences. Worst part is, I think you need someone to hold you and tell you that you'll be alright."

Terri turned and put her own arms around Allyssa. Suddenly, she broke out into sobbing. "I didn't have anyone to turn to. Mom and Dad all think I was born this way. That spell changed all my clothes, and all the pictures in mom's photo albums. I thought I would go crazy. I thought I was the only one who remembered who I was."

Allyssa held on through her tear-filled confession.

After a bit, Terri had managed to calm down, and she pulled away and wiped her eyes. "I don't understand why I keep getting so upset."

Allyssa smiled. "Now that.. I have an answer to. You see, your body changed but your mind did not. Every chemical in your bloodstream can effect your brain and your mind, including female hormones."

"You mean that..."

"It's common among magical persons who frequent in the transmutation arts. Mood swings and changes in diet are the most common. After a few days you'll get used to your new hormones, and you won't fly off the handle as much."

"You mean there are other people who can change?"

"Many, including myself. I like playing with my cat as one."

"Can you change me back?" asked Terri, her voice filled with hope, her eyes with desperation.

Allyssa sighed. "I knew you would ask me that and the answer isn't a simple yes or no."

"Yes I could, for a bit but it would be temporary, and would wear off. About two hours is the longest I could do it. Then there is the charm to consider..."

"I don't understand." said Terri, the hope falling from her voice.

"Well, even if I could change you back, everyone else is still affected by the charm spell, and seeing you as a male, people that knew you would see something wrong."

"You mean, I have to stay being female?"

"At least while at school or at home. Until the effects of the charm are reversed, everyone is going to see you as a girl. But If I teach you to transform yourself, you could probably enjoy a little 'Guy time' while out shopping or something."

Terri sighed. "I really screwed up this time, didn't I?"

"Yes, yes you did. I don't think I could put it better. But don't worry, I'm here to help, and I'll see if I can get you introduced to some other magic users who could also be of help, okay?"

"You don't mean Jen and Sam do you?"

"Well, yes and no. Yes I will introduce you to them both, as they are also users, but they were not the ones I was thinking of when I said that. I meant magic users with talent."

"Hey!" Came a voice from under the bleachers. "We've got talent!"

Allyssa chuckled. "Only if you like talking with fish."

"Uhm, hello." Said Terri as she bent over to look under the seat. "Have you been listening the entire time?"

"Yes, but we won't spill your secret about really being a boy." said Sam.

"Not that anyone would believe us anyways." Added Jen.

*****************************************************************

Allyssa quietly opened the lock to her bedroom door. Her parents were already asleep and it was only nine-thirty. She knew what to expect waiting for her in her room, so she closed the door behind her then waited a moment before turning on the light.

"Well?" a stern woman's voice snapped from the darkness.

Allyssa reached out toward her light switch, but instead tapped a corner of the plate twice, causing several vertical pillars in the corners of the room to begin glowing a greenish white light.

She then hit the switch, revealing a elderly woman wearing gray slacks and a blouse that must have been nearly as old in style as the woman herself.

"Greetings Elder. A fine hello to you as well. I'm doing great, and yourself?" Allyssa mockingly went through the gestures of civility for someone obviously not in the mood to return them.

"You promised you would have an answer for the council this evening, yet I find myself having to come here personally."

"My apologies elder, getting all the details took longer than I thought. I am prepared now however."

The woman calmed slightly. "You three are the only known users with any idea of what may have happened, or normally the council would not have bothered you for such information gathering."

"Your confidence is overwhelming." Allyssa replied, with a fair of sarcasm thrown in as she calmly stood facing her guest.

"Yes, yes, age and wisdom does lend itself to distrust and disgust of the youth that we ourselves once were, but for now you have my full and undivided attention, so please make your report."

Allyssa grinning slightly. "If it pleases you, may I explain what brought you here in the first place?"

"By all means."

"Friday night, you were alerted to a massive charm spell set off in this area. It registered a measured effect in certain places and records, but that effect itself was still being traced."

"Immediately thinking myself and my coven were to blame, the council sent the cleaning squads in order to erase minds and set right whatever we had done."

The elder councilwoman sighed. "I am already familiar with this, but when we got here, you informed us that you were not the cause of the charm, but were supposed to be affected by it."

"But we were protected incidentally by a mental shield spell we had up for an entirely different purpose."

Again the Elder interrupted. "But didn't you say it failed."

"The charm was a powerful one, yes Elder. But the Shield held long enough for us to not be fully affected. We saw what the charm was meant to do. It was supposed to make us believe something which wasn't true."

"But you still have yet to explain to the council as to what that truth is." replied the Elder.

"Yes, well, there was a reason that I threatened my coven to silence on the matter. I wished to investigate this myself personally."

"But now you are willing to tell us?"

"Yes Elder, for I was wrong in my assumption."

The Elder leaned forward. "Well, good of you to admit when your wrong, but what was this truth that the charm was hiding."

Allyssa sighed. "Elder, one of the students in my school came to class this Monday morning not the same gender they were when they left Friday evening."

"Is that all? A mere gender transfiguration?"

"No Elder. That was the tip of this iceberg."

"I don't understand."

"Elder, I spoke with this person and discovered that she had Transfigured herself, her wardrobe, and cast the charm...."

"That seems reasonable..." interrupted the Elder.

"...All at the same time, with one spell." finished Allyssa.

The elder put her hand on her heart. "You mean someone managed to do all this AT ONCE?!"

"Yes, and by accident too, I might add. 'She' is also not thrilled by her actions and is now in search of a counterspell."

The elder stared off ahead of her, eyes unfocused.

"How did she accidentally cast such a spell?"

"'He' uncovered it, while looking through boxes in his attic. He read it aloud, thinking it was something else, and 'Boom'."

"Boom?"

"He woke up female, with everyone around thinking he had always been female, including his parents and found his wardrobe transfigured as well. The only people at school that know the truth are my coven."

"One spell?"

"One spell Elder. She awoke with a charred piece of paper in her hand."

"Normal spell scroll behavior."

"Yes elder, but she seems to have a bit of a photographic memory, and was attempting to recopy it down, in hopes it would help her find a counterspell."

"Did you see it?"

"Yes Elder. It looked to be twelve stanzas long, but I could not understand it."

"Why not, you can read can't you?"

"Elder, she was not writing down words. She was inscribing astrogliphs onto her paper."

"WHAT!?!" The Elder barked as she hopped to her feet. "Are you telling the truth?"

"I am elder. I do not think she even realized she was doing it. I think she was reading it and writing it as if it were simple text."

The Elder looked at Allyssa. "You say Twelve stanza?"

"I am not sure. I cannot read Glyphs myself, I could be wrong."

"Still..." Mused the Elder. "You do realize what this means don't you?"

"That a novice user, who can read glyph, accidentally cast a multi-faceted, high level transfiguration and charm spell all on her own, by accident, and without a smidgen of prior experience?" rattled Allyssa, now very smug and sure of herself.

"By the Goddess...."

"I did not reveal to her any of this. I tried to play down her situation. I thought it best if she was not aware that she may have a high channeling capacity."

"Good thinking. Keep her in the dark until we can sit her down formally and walk her slowly into it. What else can you tell me?"

"She has a copy of the 'Beginners spell guidebook, level One'."

The Elder looked confused. "Not a special book, it's recommended for all novice users. Council approved."

"Yes Elder, but she isn't a known user, yet. Where would she get a copy of it?"

"...... You may have a point. She found it in the attic as well, along with the spell?"

"Yes elder."

"Then it might have been a relative's copy. Someone who passed on. But that isn't going to be enough."

"Elder. The book's serial is listed as AD2F45."

The Elder turned back toward her. "You got its serial number?"

"While I distracted our newly anointed member of the fairer sex, one of my coven used a bit of 'Muggle magic' to slip the book out of her bag, get the number and put it back, without anyone noticing."

"'Muggle' That Damn Rowling and her muggles. Just go and say it. Your friend is a pickpocket. She has the ole 'five finger discount' practiced to perfection."

"I think she would resent that Elder. She has reformed herself from her earlier teenage years."

"In any case, the serial number was good thinking on your part. If that book was picked up from a reputable shop, they would have recorded the buyer and the serial in their records."

"Yes Elder, here I wrote it down for you, as well as the girl's name. The other parts of the charm might trace back to FBI records, birth certificates or other records, which would now identify her as female."

"Likely, and with her name at least, we can go and quell fears about the charm's effect. For at least a while yet, we'll be able to confirm if her records were the ones modified."

"Is this a sufficient report Elder, or do you require more?" Asked Allyssa, holding a folded sheet out.

The Elder smiled, took the paper and tucked it into a pocket of her slacks. "That was quite more than I expected to get from you, and I am sure the council will be pleased. I may be able to arrange a bit of compensation for your effort, nothing large of course."

"Of course, but I humbly accept and appreciate any reward offered to me by the council on this matter."

The woman smiled again. "We will be in touch again, soon probably. You have made me proud to call you my niece."

"Thank you. I have never had a shortness of pride about you Aunt Bernice."

With that, The Elder snapped her fingers and disappeared with a soft, hollow, "FOP" as the air simply rushed in to occupy the now empty space.

Allyssa tapped the corner of her light switch again, causing the pillars to fade out. "I'm glad I had those listening barriers installed. The fewer people that hear that Terri wasn't female last week, the better."

*****************************************************************

Synopsis: Terri is asked to do the unthinkable, try out for the cheer squad, and strangely enough, she does, but not because she wants to, but because there is something she needs to do.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter Two
Acceptance, but for the wrong reason.

*****************************************************************

Allyssa was running down the sidewalk to catch up to Terri who was walking at her usual, strained pace. It was the most widely known thing about school. Terri's speed at traversing the halls was almost legend. Allyssa often wondered why she had such a stride. She thought to herself that Terri must go through shoes rather quickly.

"Terri, wait up!" she yelled as she got close.

Terri turned to look behind her while she continued walking. "I got out of the house later than usual, we'll be late if we stop."

"You're a machine, you know that?" Gasped Allyssa as she slowed down to a light jog to keep up.

"I once read that military personal have a required twenty inch instep. I thought to myself that I could beat that. I'm up to twenty-three myself." Terri rattled off idly. "It has improved my fitness level. I was a complete wuss in middle school, and now I can keep up with any runner in class during the warm ups."

"Well, since we still have a few blocks till we get to school, I thought we could discuss what happened a little more in detail. I'm really curious about the whole thing." Said Allyssa, trying to change the subject. It was obvious by her breathing that she was not in as good of shape.

"I really thought I told you everything." Said Terri.

"Well, it's not everyday that people just happen to accidentally cast a spell off a scroll they just find lying about."

"Well, like I told you, I thought it was part of Mom and Dad's act."

"What act is that?"

"Mom and Dad were in a magic show in Atlantic city in a casino somewhere. Dad used to cut mom in half and stuff, make her disappear, and other illusionist tricks. He used to say strange words when he was doing them, claiming he was casting magic spells. I thought that sheet was the stuff he used to say."

"Oh, so you said them out loud, pretending to be your father."

"Uhm, no, not exactly. I was up in the attic looking through one of their old steamer trunks. They had some of their old performing clothes in them. I found the spell in the bottom of the trunk."

"And that's why you thought the spell was part of the act. You were playing dress up with your father's old things..."

Allyssa stopped as Terri did, and turned toward her, Terri's eyes now focused on hers, and Allyssa swore she saw flames behind them again.

Terri's words came clearly, through gritted teeth. She seemed pushed into speaking.

"You. Will. Tell. No. One. What. I. Am. About. To. Tell. You."

Allyssa felt a bit of abject fear from this seethed enunciated statement. "Alright. It will be between you and me."

"I wasn't up there trying on my father's old clothes."

Allyssa first said "Oh." very casually, then again, this time the depth sunk in.

"It doesn't seem fitting of my behavior, does it?"

Allyssa took her hand. "You don't need to feel bad. There are many men who dress up in women's clothes. It's so common they even have a word for it."

Terri looked down at herself. "I don't know what's wrong with me. "When I woke up, and realized what happened, I should have been overjoyed, but I freaked out and ran downstairs, still in mom's white bodysuit and tried to convince her that I was a boy, but she was under the charm like everyone else."

"Ah, now I understand your comment from yesterday. About not being like everyone else."

"Yes."

"So what happened when your dad came home?"

"He was just as brainwashed. It was a good thing, because by that time I was scared about going to school. I don't know how I would have explained being a girl if the charm hadn't gone off."

Terri suddenly looked at her watch. "Shit, all this time explaining and I forgot about the time, we gotta run or we'll be late!"

Allyssa grabbed Terri's arm. "Don't worry about that. You forgot who you made friends with yesterday."

"Huh?" Asked Terri, before squeaking feebly as she felt the ground fall away under her, as her feet lifted off the pavement.

Allyssa was smiling as she continued to hold her arm. "Now hold on tight, we're going to teleport to school in half a twitch."

And suddenly, it was dark.

"Whoa? Where am I?" Terri cried out. The hand still on her arm gently pulled on her, and she felt the floor under her again.

Allyssa turned the handle of a door and opened it, letting the light in and allowing Terri to realize they were in a small closet. She recognized the hallway outside as being near the auditorium. She had passed this door many times since her freshmen year, but never knew what was in it. There was little traffic on this hallway as it was on the end of the wing of the school and classrooms were almost fifty meters down the hallway and most did not need to use this hall to get around. Allyssa peeked outside and stepped out, motioning for Terri to do the same.

"It's okay. No one saw us step out."

"You use that closet often?"

"Only when I have to. A magic spell I cast last year made the staff forget it's even here, but they can still use it if they need to. I have a ward up inside the door to let me know if anyone is in there, or if the room is too cluttered to land."

"Oh but the room itself is clean. There were only a few shelves up in there and everything is nice and neatly arranged."

"I did that too. No magic though. The morning janitor thinks the evening guy did it, and vise versa."

"So they just keep stuff off the floor now?"

"Yes, but enough about that." and she shut the door. "We need to get to class now. See you at lunch, okay?"

"Okay." Replied Terri as she hurried down the hallway, and weaving into the loose throngs of students passing down the main hallway to their lockers.

*****************************************************************

Lunchtime could not have come fast enough for Terri. That is, until she actually got to the cafeteria commons.

She was not delighted to find six other people sitting at her usual table, the one she had enjoyed alone since the beginning of the year. They were all actively looking around and got excited when she appeared from the food serving lines.

She stared at them, all waving at her to come over, four girls and two boys, wondering what she had done to deserve all the attention.

Allyssa stepped into her field of vision, a smile on the Goth girl's face. "Boy they do seem happy to see you today, don't they?"

"Why are they at my table? I've had that table all year by myself and now they just decide to sit there."

"Oh, well they want to get to know you better. If you want to come sit at our table, I'll explain it while you eat."

Terri looked over Allyssa's shoulder again at her old haunt, nodded, then began to follow her in the opposite direction, much to the surprise of those who were motioning to her.

Allyssa plopped down in her usual seat, her back to the rest of the commons area. This left a large open area on the far side, which Terri happily took up, so she could see almost all the activity and anyone approaching.

"Okay Terri, you can start eating as long as you promise not to spray food on me as I tell you about this."

"Okay." she replied, as she began unceremoniously unwrapping the large egg salad sandwich she had bought and stuffing into her face.

Samantha and Jennifer were sitting on the other two main cardinal points of the table and were rather stunned as to how she ate.

"You are such a pig, said Sam. You need to learn some restraint if you want to pass."

"Time to explain things." said Allyssa. "Okay, the reason they are at your table today is mainly thanks to that charm spell. Every time people look at you, and they knew who you were, when they try to place your face to a name, their mind says 'wait a minute. Something isn't quite right about her.' The charm begins fighting a little mental battle with their minds, and if they try to place the problem too much, the charm will actually give people headaches, breaking their concentration. So not only can't they remember that you are different, whenever they try to remember anything about you, like say your habit about eating alone, they can't remember why. It basically left people knowing less about you and usually just staring at you for a minute."

Allyssa continued. "So your popularity has gone through the roof since everytime people look at you, you become more and more of an enigma. It just makes the shallow ones who recruit for their cliques want to get to know you now, since they can't figure out why someone with a body like yours isn't a cheerleader,
fashionista whatever."

Sam added. "You'll have to get used to it."

Terri swallowed the bite she was currently on, nodded and added, "Okay, I can buy that. I don't know why you would think I was going to spray this at you."

"Oh, well, the reason I asked you to not be surprised, is because I need you to put on that cheer uniform you got yesterday and try out for the team after class."

Terri choked, began to cough, and tore open her carton of milk, and knocked back half the contents in order to regain her breath.

"What did you just say?" Terri wheezed.

"Hear me out. There are two boys in this school who raped one of the cheerleaders two weeks ago. I don't know how to make you believe this, but I have moments where I can see the future and they are going to do the same to you tonight."

"Why me?"

"No idea, I see the future, not people's thought processes."

"What does this have to do with me trying out for the cheer squad?"

"Well, if you try out and fail to make the team, which I know you will, you'll get sent to the showers early where they'll be waiting for you."

"And you want me to get raped?"

"Absolutely not! If you do this, I'll make sure stuff is in place to catch them before they can hurt you. The police don't have a suspect in Naomi’s case, just two sperm samples. If we can hand in those two, she can get some justice."

Terri looked down at her food, and then crushed her now empty milk carton in her hand. "What do I need to do?"

"First off, you need to convince them." Said Allyssa.

"Huh?" replied Terri as she raised her head in time to see the pep squad members once again making a beeline through the tables and crowds to reach her.

"Hey Terri, you ready for this afternoon? I know you'll make the team, did you remember your uniform?"

Terri nodded. "Yes, I did. I just didn't plan on wearing it all day."

"Oh, we all always wear our uniforms all day. We supposed to inspire school spirit."

"Well, I didn't feel right doing it until I had actually made the team. You understand, right?"

The girl nodded. "I guess so. But you shouldn't have had to worry about it; I just know you'll get in. But how come you're sitting over here today?"

"Well, Samantha here is my lab partner in chemistry and I was borrowing her notes. I wasn't paying enough attention in class."

Samantha rolled her eyes. "Yes, and you are going to owe me for letting you borrow them, I don't want to fail because you're to busy filing your nails and chewing bubblegum at the same time to take notes.

As Sam uttered the last line, Terri dropped one hand under the table, while the other simply curled her fingers under her palm and rested it on the table.

Allyssa smiled as she watched Terri's fingers flex open again, this time with longer shaped nails, complete with a reddish pink shine to them.

"I'm sorry okay?" Snapped Terri, "I chipped a nail on my locker, it was driving me crazy." She was looking at Samantha with a hostile glare so fake, she could see the smirk through it.

"Give her a break Sam, you just don't understand, do you?" the head cheerleader added.

"No, I suppose I don't." Replied Sam. "I thought this was high school, not a runway."

"What do airplanes have to do with this?" questioned the head cheerleader.

"Never mind!" cried Terri, holding her hand to her temple. "She's using her smartness mind games on us. You'd better go, I'll see you at practice, alright?"

"Okay then. See you at practice." The three all chimed in almost perfect unison. They then turned and left.

Once out of earshot, Terri flopped backward, hanging her head off her chair. "Dear Goddess, did I just speak that kind of drivel?"

"Yes, and a very good job on your nails too, I was wondering if you had in fact been learning anything from those magic books you found along with that spell."

It's not the only thing I've learned, but it just feels like more schoolwork.

"You get used to that too, but on to step two. Now that you've convinced them you want to show up, you might want to put on your uniform now."

"Now? There is like half the day left! I don't need to wear it until after classes at three."

"Yes, but if you wait to change, you'll upset the plan. They will grab you as you coming down the hallway to the changing rooms, and who knows where they will take you."

"Oh. So I have to change now, so I'll be ready for practice right away."

"Yep, and here..." Allyssa fished through her bag, pulling out a folded bundle of gray fabric. She passed it over the table to Terri. It looked to be made of the same cotton fabric like that many of her old t-shirts.

"Wear this under your cheer outfit, and make sure to take off your bra and undies, just wear that. It's magically enhanced and while you wear it, I promise that no one will be able to stick their penis, or anything else for that matter, in where you don't want them to."

"What is it?" Asked Terri, as she rubbed the fabric between her fingers.

"It's like a cat suit. It'll cover you from your neckline to toe. It's insanely comfortable. Oh, and you have to tell it to put itself on you, as it has no zippers. Once you're in it, you won't be able to get out, at least without my say so."

"So how do I pee in this?"

"Ever heard of a convenience crotch? When you need to use the toilet, just grab the fabric on the inside of both thighs and pull it apart. It will act as a split seam, and open enough. When you're done, it'll just seal itself back up. But that's why you have to take your undies off, else you'll have problems in the potty."

"Gotcha, so where should I change?"

"Use the closet from this morning. You find the door is unlocked."

"I totally hate you for this. I am going to be so embarrassed wearing that uniform the rest of the day."

"Buck up and take one for the team here. You agreed to this, you can't back out now."

Terry took the bundle, stuffed it into her bag, and rose from her seat and after looking around, hopped over the low divider wall that divided this large room into the commons and an outer ring hallway that circled it.

She darted up the steps and turned down the lonely hallway toward the auditorium, then slipped into the closet.

A few minutes later she emerged, now garbed from head to toe in soft, gray cotton with the cheerleader skirt and top over that.

She was stuffing her pants into her backpack as she walked back down the hallway, and then realized she would have to descend the grand staircase in her new outfit.

She steeled her resolve and hung to the right-hand side, holding the rail as her feet barely managed to keep up with the steps during her very quick decent.

She walked along the wall, now partially obscured from view until she reached the point that she was only across the wall from her chair. She leaned over enough to quietly ask, "Is it just me or am I getting stared at even more now?"

"Both." Sam and Allyssa replied said in unison.

"I am so totally going to get you back for this."

Sam looked at her. "You're not fooling me. You are actually enjoying wear that."

Terr snapped back. "That's not the point!"

Allyssa interrupted. "You better get going to class. We have some things to discuss."

Terri sighed, then turned and proceeded with her usual power walking until she had disappeared under the grand staircase and around a corner.

Sam looked at Allyssa. "That was a good idea, putting her into a bio symbiotic suit like that. I suppose she would be injured otherwise, huh?"

Allyssa shook her head. "On the contrary. It's not her that is due to be injured. The suit to comfort any fears she might have, even though it's still an underdeveloped symbiont, it lacks a download from an adult counterpart. Though I doubt wearing it, or knowing how to use it will even be necessary."

"Terri is still getting used to her new hormone levels. She seemed a bit too eager to help 'catch' those boys." Said Jen.

Allyssa nodded. "We have to get ready, because if my vision is true, then those boys are the ones that have something to worry about, they just don't know it yet."

*****************************************************************

After school, in the middle of the gymnasium, Terri stood there with her arms at her sides and her eyes closed. She was holding the requisite poms in either hand and looking psychologically broken and tired.

"Well Terri." Said a normally cheerful voice, which was still trying to put forward some optimism despite having something quite negative to say. "... I think you have the look totally down, but you seem to lack the amount of cheerfulness that that this requires. Did you get enough sleep last night?"

"Actually, I didn't, though I didn't feel tired at all until just now." Terri replied calmly, then dropped the pompoms and walked over to the bleachers on the side of the gym, plopping herself down.

"Ok Terri, we're going to start practice now, if you still want to join, I think you can learn a lot by watching." the head cheerleader piped.

Terri relaxed herself a bit. She turned and stretched out lengthwise on the bleacher bench. She turned her head enough so that one eye could still see the squad now in full practice mode.

The cheer coach, who also was the chemistry teacher, however cleared her throat softly before sitting down next to Terri as the squad went about their routine without much need of her guidance.

"You don't really want to be on the squad, do you?"

"I have no idea what gave them the idea that I would."

"I was told that you had practically begged them to let you try out."

"A lie, I swear. They practically forced this uniform into my hands and badgered me until I wore it."

"I believe that. You didn't put a bit of effort into your tryout. Like you hated it. And you don't have any enthusiasm toward this at all. You do seem to be putting a great deal of effort into being not worth paying attention to."

"It's something I do best, and up until yesterday, it worked well. But well...."

"You seemed to have blossomed over the weekend dear. You are a stunningly beautiful young woman, and don't let anyone say otherwise."

"Yeah well, I miss being overlooked. I didn't mind being a shadow, and now that I can't possibly go back, I miss it."

"If you missed being overlooked so much, then why did you cast that spell?"

Terri's eyes flew open; she sat up and turned quickly so she was facing the teacher. "How do you know about the spell? You remember me before I looked like this?"

The coach nodded. "I know about the spell, because I wasn't effected by it. I'm a resistant. Even the most powerful spells usually just roll off me like water to a duck's back."

Terri's eyes were the size of dinner plates. "Then... you. You know that I'm....."

"Regardless of what you were, you are now as female as I am. When the girls told me you wanted to try out, I went to the office for your record, since I am a senior advisor I like to know the names of all the girls I might encounter, and I couldn't place your name with a face I remembered."

"Your records were altered by the charm, and so was every other teacher, but I suddenly remembered you, and I knew."

Terri sighed and looked down at herself. "I'm a damned freak. I didn't mean to do this to myself, it just kind of happened."

Suddenly, Terri found herself in another surprise embrace. "I didn't know hon, I'm sorry."

Terri leaned into it, instead of backing away. This was the second time someone had cared for her this much to just hug her. She couldn't control her emotions again and she found herself tearing up.

"I thought you had wanted this." Said the Coach. "I had no idea you were a victim of an accident. It's as bad as getting attacked and...."

"Raped?" Added Terri. "Yeah, I think that might be what its felt like these five days, mostly because I thought I was the only one who knew who I really was. It was a personal hell, let me tell you."

The coach continued to hold onto her. "Terri, I want to be here for you. My mother is a user, and it hurt her deeply when it was determined that I was a resistant; so I know the kind of pain you are going through. If you need a shoulder to cry on or just someone to talk to, you can come to me."

"I could use that. I'm not used to being female, and thanks to the charm, I can't just change back."

The coach nodded. "Are you at least feeling a little better now?"

"Yeah." Terri replied. "I'm just glad that you aren't mad at me for being a magical pervert, trying to sneak a peek at girls in their underwear."

The coach chuckled softly. "Please. The first thing a male user, that transfigures themselves like you did in an attempt to see girls, will realize is that they can pose nude in their own mirror."

Terri smiled slightly. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. I'm still scared of taking a shower like this though."

"Then take hot bubble baths. You'll love em, trust me."

Then Terri remembered why she had agreed to tryout in the first place. She decided that she would take that bit of advice. "I so want to run home now and sink into a tub full of water. I'm so not getting anything from watching them practice."

"Well, no sense in asking you to show some more school spirit, I think that Cindy and Michelle were seeing something there because they wanted to see it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Terri, both curious and skeptic.

"I think they wanted you to join the team, maybe because they wanted to get to know you a little better."

"You mean they're..."

"They are."

"I would never have known that. Of course that might require me to converse with them once in awhile. That also might require them to speak in a language other than vacuous prattling."

"Such words."

"I doubt they could even understand that I was just insulting them."

"They aren't stupid, Cindy is getting A's and B's in her classes."

"But why can't they sound intelligent in public? That's the other reason I wouldn't join this squad even if I wanted to. The rest of the school subtracts intelligence points just because of this skirt." Terri grabbed and tugged at the bottom of her skirt with two fingers.

The Teacher chuckled to herself softly. "I think you are stereotyping cheerleaders."

"I might be, but if they want my respect, they will have to take off these uniforms and try to speak with me without the cheerful chirping. If they can speak and act like normal people, I want to see proof."

"Alright, I'll speak with them and see what I can do. If Cindy and Michelle show up at your house after practice maybe?"

Terri lowered her head and mumbled "Yeah, fine, whatever."

"Well, you'll still have to return that uniform, unless you plan on making another go at it. The squad will be practicing for another half hour, so you can change in peace."

"Alright." replied Terri as she stood up and then stormed down to the auxiliary hallway toward the girls changing room.

*****************************************************************

Two boys in all black clothes wearing ski masks were crouched against the wall in the shower room of the girl's gym locker room.

"You sure she's coming?"

"Shut up. I told you, if she's as bad as I know she's going to be, she'll be sent to the showers early. We do this just like we planned. She'll never know who we are and we'll get away through the office and out the small gym's exit doors."

"I think I hear someone coming, shut up!"

There was a creaking as the door to the girl's locker was pulled open, and soft footsteps as someone entered the main changing area.

The first motioned to the second, and they leaped out, intending to grab the girl who's back was turned only to pass through Terri completely as if she was only an illusion. They stumbled over the bench just beyond her and nearly fell.

As they stared at this apparition, she appeared to get furious at them and stormed forward and through them again, crooking her arm back for a punch...

...Only to disappear as the real Terri stepped out past her illusion curtain, landing the punch right on the jaw of one of her confused attackers.

The punch connected with a force far greater than he suspected it should have, lifting him off the floor, tossing him a good ten feet into the far locker bank, before he fell forward, sprawling out on a bench. He had however, managed to get his hand into the v-neck of her cheer sweater and tore the front open as he caught air. This only seemed to get her angrier.

The second turned to see her recoiling for a second blow. He swore he saw glowing marks on her face and across the knuckles of her fist it approached his face.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he saw vapors bleeding off the glowing marks on her knuckles as it tore through the air on it's path to connect squarely on his cheek.

The impact smashed into his face, and he heard the crunching of bones. Time returned to normal as he felt his feet lifting off the tiled floor only to feel the hardened steel of locker doors against the back of his head, then the rest of him, knocking him into unconsciousness.

The noise of young men impacting school equipment could be heard in the gym and the coach and several girls all had a sickened look upon their face and immediately took off running toward the locker room.

As the second boy slid down the locker into a crumpled heap, his vision escaping into black, he could see her approaching, and knew that the pain wasn't yet over. He couldn't seem to lift his arms enough to block; he was already too far-gone.

"TERRI!!" Shouted Allyssa as she and three female police officers threw open the door and started to storm into the room.

As Terri turned toward the door from hearing her name, she broke her concentration and the glowing marks faded quickly away, just in time as the officers rounded the corner.

They stopped as the witnessed the scene before them. A girl, who's outer top had been ripped open, was standing over the unconscious body of one of her would-be attackers.

The cheer coach, and her charges had made it into the hallway just in time to see police charging into the girl's locker room at the other end. They too were now entering, and bore witness to the scene laid out for them.

By now, two of the officers were slapping cuffs on Terri's attackers leaving the third to inspect her for injury. She was surprised to find her unharmed, except for the ripped top.

"How did you manage to knock them both out?"

"Oh, I caught them by surprise, and got lucky shots in." remarked Terri, staring at the floor.

The three cheerleaders suddenly realized what had happened and nearly threw themselves around Terri, tears already beginning to flow.

"Aw, get off me. You're soaking me, ewwww!"

Synopsis: Terri has to learn magic from somewhere, and an old promise is coming back to haunt her, but first she has to deal with her new outfit, which has a mind of it's own.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter Three
Suits and Revelations.

---

The police squad car pulled into the driveway of Terri's house. It was an old mansion in the historical district only a few blocks from the school.

Terri stepped out of the front passenger seat, only to be bull-rushed by her mother.

"Sweetie! Are you ok?" she asked frantically, as she lifted her daughter's shirt to look for any bruises or cuts, only finding the symbiotic catsuit still acting as an unbroken second skin.

Her mother was being very thorough, when after lifting her shirt, she started to unzip her shorts, but Terri brushed her off and jumped back.

"Mom, geez! We're out in the yard! You can inspect me later." Terri cried out before turning to look at the officer with a grin. "I told ya."

Her mother walked Terri into the house, followed by the female officer.

"Terri, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah mom, I'm just trying to block out all of the horrible memories, like when I sent the one sprawling onto the bench. The look of surprise on his face was just Horribly precious. Yes, horrible, horrible things I want to forget. You mind if I watch some TV?" she asked, the grin still on her face.

"I suppose dear."

She meandered up the stairs to her favorite television and the ratty old couch she enjoyed stretching out on.

Meanwhile her mother took the chance to talk to the officer.

"Thank you for driving her home." she said .

"Think nothing of it." said the officer. "Since she didn't seem to have suffered any injuries, we didn't need to rush her to the hospital."

"So she wasn't actually raped?"

"No Ma'am. As I had said when I called you earlier, we stormed in before they had a chance to violate her."

"She seems rather casual. I would have expected her to be hysterical and crying when you got here."

"Well, honestly, she did repel both attackers in just a few seconds. We had a tip that those boys were planning something like this, so we were waiting in a room across the hall. When we heard the crash of the second boy against a locker we thought she was the victim of that injury and rushed in."

The officer continued. "Has Terri had any formal martial arts or defense class training?"

Her mother looked thoughtful. "No, I'm certain I would know if she took classes, at least I think I would. Recently she has seemed a little different, but I can't seem to put my finger on how." she replied.

The officer shrugged her shoulders. "She said she got in some lucky shots, and despite my better judgment I will have to put that in my report at the precinct."

"Also, all victims of sexual assault, attempted or not, are invited to visit a rape councilor. I'll have one contact you tomorrow."

Terri's mother nodded. "Thank you again."

The officer looked at her watch. "I wish I could stay and chat, but I hear the paperwork calling and oh what fun it's going to be."

She returned to her cruiser and was leaving the driveway as Allyssa came running down the sidewalk.

"Can I speak with Terri?" she said, in between gasps as she caught her breath in the front yard.

Terri's mother looked at this strangely dressed Goth girl. "And who should I say is calling?"

"I'm Allyssa. She got brought home before I got a chance to speak with her."

Terri's mother opened the front door and leaned in, shouting up the steps. "Terri! Allyssa is here to see you."

"Can she come in?" Was the response shouted back down.

Terri's mother motioned for the girl to step inside. "She's up the steps on the second floor, first door on the left.

"Thank you." said Allyssa and she ascended the stairs with a lack of vigor, mostly from her run. She saw from the doorway, a pair of sneakered feet hung over the edge of a couch that had seen better days.

"Hello."

"Hey." replied Terri as she spun her legs off the couch, sitting her upright and giving her guest a place to sit facing the TV that sat against the opposite wall.Allyssa sat down next to her.
"I suspect your mother thinks I am going to give you makeup tips on being Goth." she said. Terri looked at her suddenly burst into laughter.
"I wouldn't put it past her. She musta gave you 'the look' didn't she?"

"I suspect so. Her eyes gave me a chill."

"Yup, that's it alright. So if it wasn't makeup tips, why did you run here from school?"

Allyssa smiled. "Well, I just came to see how you were holding up from your terrible ordeal, and by looking at your choice of programming...." She gestured to the Television, which was currently showing an episode of the 'Joy of painting, with Bob Ross.'

"... I think you must be horribly depressed."

Terri turned and scowled at her for a moment. "Say what you want about me, but don't ever diss Bob Ross. He was a wonderful painter, and I am mesmerized whenever I watch him."

Allyssa turned and watched it for a few moments before nodding. "His voice does have an almost hypnotic quality to it. It is quite calming..." she mused. "Anyway."

"Anyway what?"

"The reason I came here was to tell you how to take that bodysuit off."

"Oh, I had almost forgotten it was there, it is damned comfortable."

"So you like it?"

"Yeah, I do, especially the support." said Terri, cupping her breasts. "It holds me up very well." she added as she jiggled them up and down slightly.

"It is probably happy to hear you say that."

"Uhm...What?" Said Terri, her eyes now rather wide, though she was so stunned she hadn't turned away from the television."

"It's sentient... well slightly." said Allyssa. "It can harden itself to repel bullets or knives and it will cover your whole body to protect you from a fire."

"Wow. Considering everything else I've been dealing with in the last five days, I am only slightly creeped out by this revelation."

"So, you want to take it off now?"

"Just promise me it won't start molesting me."

Allyssa responded with a smile. "If you ask it to, you can't call it molesting. It wouldn't without your express permission."

Terri nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. What else does it do?"

"Well, if you give it some mana, it can assume other shapes."

"Mana, oh yeah, magic energy? How do I do that?"

Allyssa lifted Teri's arm, and gently kissed the gray sleeve. Her kiss took a moment longer than seemed appropriate. As her lips parted, she soothingly spoke. "Increase her bust size would you? I think she would look good with F-cups."

Terri eeped as she heard those words, and eeped again as the orbs under her shirt begin to swell up until they looked like balloons tucked under the fabric.

"That's not funny." Terri said, lifting them. "Geez they even feel like they have the weight, but I'm not feeling my hands on them anymore."

Allyssa smiled. "That is because it's not your real boobs that inflated, just the support cups. But, I'm not giving up any more mana to the suit, so if you want your boobs back to normal, you do it yourself."

Terri lifted her arm and quickly kissed the suit. She then asked for them to be returned to reality, but nothing happened.

Allyssa giggled. "You have to kiss like you mean it, and you'll feel a tingle in your lips when you do it right. You'll have to do that to take it off anyway, so you better learn quick."

Terri tried again, this time her lips remained on the fabric for a few seconds, and her eyes widened then closed.

The balloons deflated immediately without her saying anything.

"You have the advantage of not having to speak what you want it to do, since you're wearing it and all." added Allyssa.

Bigger changes will require more mana, so get used to smooching it.

Terri nodded. "This is wild. Where did you get it?"

Allyssa looked away. "It's a life form that the user community believes was created magically. This one is still in the development stage but it's now already bonded to you, so I guess you will have to make one for me, to replace it. Sounds fair, doesn't it?"

"Uhm, make one? How am I supposed to make one?"

"You'll like this part. You get to be a full fledged mommy for about seven weeks."

"You don't mean?"

"You may encounter someone else with their own symbiotic suit, just like yours. The suits may decide to merge with each other and share their combined experiences, which will help you out by saving you time in teaching it on how to replicate different outfits or materials. An adult suit is likely to have a good four thousand years worth of clothing styles it remembers."

"It has only one problem, and that is that the suits cannot reproduce by themselves. They need a warm womb to place their baby into until it can survive in the outside environment."

"Your suit will ask for your participation when it needs it. It would be in your best interests to allow it. The minor inconvenience for you makes for a very happy suit that will truly do everything in its power to protect you."

Terri was pale. "You're telling me I have to become pregnant with an alien baby?"

"It's not an alien, I told you, it's a construct. The whole surragate motherhood and birth is painless. You can give me the offspring afterward."

"Do I have a choice?"

"Terri, it's the very least you can do to insure the survival of its species."

Terri looked down at herself. "I get to look forward to being impregnated by my own clothing. Joy."

Allyssa giggled. "Just spend some more time as a girl and you might have second thoughts about it. The sensation of motherhood is like nothing you have ever experienced. Your body might tell your head that you want it."

"So my mother has mentioned... several times... a day... since I transformed myself. She says that becoming a mother is..."

Allyssa interrupted her. "...Speaking of your mother, she is coming upstairs. She is also broadcasting bad thoughts toward me. She really doesn't like Goths, does she?"

Terri was about to answer, but Allyssa put a finger to her mouth. "She wants me gone, play along." she whispered.

Allyssa then exclaimed in a louder voice. "When you have more understanding of makeup technique and the proper clothes... then maybe you'd fit in better our group."

She winked then shouted. "You're too damn bright and cheerful anyway to be one of us. Stay away from us and we will darken your path no longer."

With that Allyssa stood up, stormed out of the room and down the stairs right past Terri's mother, pretending to be in a huff. She threw open the front door, and marched out down the path to the sidewalk, then turned, threw up her nose and stormed off and out of sight.

Terri was still sitting there, stunned at what she had just learned, when her mother came through the doorway and threw her arms around her.

"Don't cry dear, you don't need to try to fit in with those evil girls. They aren't your friends."

Terri was speechless.

---

The next morning, Terri awoke early to the smell of fried bacon and eggs. This could only mean one thing; they had boarders.

The house was big enough that her parents had converted it into a bed and breakfast inn of sorts. Guests were infrequent but always welcome. They had six rooms on the second level devoted to guests, meaning the downstairs bedroom was her mother's, and she had a large bedroom that took up about half of the attic.

The equally large kitchen had seating enough for ten people, plus a giant skillet surface for cooking.

Terri groaned as she woke up, turning over and suddenly realizing she had rolled over onto her breast, and that this was not exactly comfortable.

She was quickly up, then stopped to look into the mirror at herself in all her glory. There was hardly any emotion as she mentally gauged her own body. Had she been outside her own body, looking at the girl in the mirror she might have found this attractive. But now it was her body, and was going to have to be, at least in public, for some time to come.

She looked down at the small patch of hair that covered her delta. The first time she had seen it, that friday night, it had only made her cry.

Now, finally after five days, she could look at it and realize what she had become, not what she had lost or what other people were going to say.

A familiar urge once again reared it's head, but Terri realized she didn't have any idea how to get started, and doubted she would have time before school to experiment.

"School," she thought to herself. A sense of modesty kicked in and she refused to further glare at herself in the mirror until she had some clothes on. Her mind was starting to give her ideas, ones that the rest of her wasn't quite ready to accept.

She chalked up her renewed interest in self-gratification to her activities before bed. After having studied the textbooks on magic that she had acquired from the attic trunk for most of the night, she had figured out how to change back, and had done so in the privacy of her room.

She had remembered what Allyssa had said about the charm and didn't feel like having to explain to her mother who the boy with the spiked hair was, so whilst changed, he didn't speak or leave the room. Since she cast the spell as a temporary effect and had gotten to bed very late, she woke up to find it had worn off.

She sighed and looked around for something clean, since her personal habits had not improved along with her physique. She located a clean pair of cotton shorts and another t-shirt. She missed the pocket tee variety, but surmised that women didn't have a pocket there for a good reason.

She was about to open her underwear drawer when she spied the bodysuit sitting in a clump on the floor at the foot of her bed.

She had spent nearly a minute kissing before it had informed her it had enough to melt itself and release her from its embrace. Though it never spoke, it was as if she knew it needed more, so she held on until she felt it moving across her skin. It took but a few seconds and it had literally melted off of her.

Picking it up now, she thought about what Allyssa had said about carrying its baby. She held it and contemplated if she could agree to the strange condition it would someday ask of her.

After a full minute, something inside her, not her head, but possibly her heart seemed to beg for the experience. She held it up, and she could also feel an emotional response for the same thing coming from the suit as well.

She closed her eyes, and said out loud. "Okay, I'll do it. I'm not comfortable with the whole idea of it at the moment, but I'm learning to overcome a bigger change than that."

She felt warmth across her arm as the suit was responding to her declaration. It slid across her skin, covering her once again, and this time she swore it was kissing her all over, which made her squirm.

"Okay, cut that out. Just promise me you won't want a child for a few weeks, okay?"

It stilled, awaiting her whim and Terri could swear she could tell how happy it was, as opposed to last night, where she had to get it off before it depressed her along with itself.

Looking at herself in the mirror she thought she looked good, but she wanted a different color. She felt the suit gently reminding her that it needed mana, so she lifted her wrist and planted a long kiss on her sleeve. She was amazed as she watched it change in front of her eyes. The color changed to a black, then the fabric itself morphed, until she was in a black spandex catsuit, but it wasn't finished. The sleeves began to shrink and she pulled her lips away to watch the material stop just below her elbow this time. It covered her feet and she lifted one up to watch it form ridges and a solid sole under her foot. She stepped down on that foot, to find herself about two inches taller, and the other left the ground, to repeat the process.

The boots looked like leather, complete with steel buckles decorating the outside facets. She was now in a pair of ass-kicking boots. She nodded at her reflection, realized this was what she had been thinking about even if it wasn't what she had asked it for at the time.

She decided to put the shirt and shorts on over top anyway, she was still feeling a bit modest and was not comfortable with anyone able to see all of her body.

Now fully dressed, she unlocked then opened her door and stepped onto the stairwell landing. She slowly trudged down the steps, getting the feel of the boots.

She walked into the kitchen to see five women, two somewhat elderly in appearance, sitting around the island table facing the skillet that sat in the center. Her mother was frying more eggs for the last two that had yet to receive food.

"Oh good honey, you're up. Can you run down to the pantry fridge and get us more milk?"

"Sure mom. Good morning to all of you." she added. "I'm sorry if I kept you up with music last night, I didn't know we had guests."

"You didn't dear." said one. "We just got here two hours ago."

"Oh." commented Terri as she walked around the kitchen, then opened the door to the basement and descended, only to return a few moments later with the milk.

"Yes dear, as we were telling your mother, we're going to be here in town for about a month and your she beat our best hotel quote. I just hope we don't inconvenience you."

"Of course not. If you need anything, and I'm around, let me know, it will be my pleasure to assist you." Terri answered in her best hostess voice. 'He' had practiced it in a mirror long before he had become a she, but she commented to herself that it sounded a bit more sincere with her new voice.

The gathered group exchanged a chuckle. Her mother smiled then commented, "I told you that she would act almost uncharacteristically polite. She's a little hellfire."

"We'll try to avoid getting burned." One of the women chuckled.

---

At lunch Terri hurried her way over to Allyssa's table, her own table still fully occupied by people she was not interested in speaking with.

"Sit down, have a seat. You're late."

Terri set her tray down and flopped into the empty chair. "Fancy meeting you three here. So what is the agenda for the day?"

"First off, your boarders are much, much more than they appear."

"Excuse me?"

"On her deathbed, your grandmother asked her friends make a promise as they stayed with her. She told them something to the effect that, if she should ever have a granddaughter who becomes a user then she wanted them to teach said granddaughter."

"You don't say." said Terri as new thoughts swirled around in her head.

"Your boarders are all accomplished users, and they are all fulfilling that promise they made ten years ago. You will need to go home right after school... to start your other schooling."

"Oh great, how come you can't teach me?"

"We're still novice users ourselves, and the council rarely allows tutelage done by those of us new to the trade."

"The council?"

"A governing body for users. The entire country is divided up into regions with the size of their territory determined by the number of users in the area. We're relatively unpopulated out here, so our council isn't even in town, but you'll get to meet them soon. They want to meet all new users."

"When is this happening?"

"Your new teachers will determine that. They need to ascertain the scope of your abilities and help you learn the basics, so don't say I didn't warn you. You've got them for a month, so don't irritate or disappoint them. You are getting a free education that most users would have to pay for."

"Oh great." replied Terri. "Just what I need."

"Good thing you didn't make the cheer team now isn't it."

"Yeah, good thing."

"Speaking of Cheerleaders.... here comes the troop again." Said Jen, not looking up from her tray of barely eaten food.

"Terri!" squealed Naomi - a member of the cheer squad she had not spoken with before that moment, who tackled Terri in her chair and hugged her tightly.

"Terri, I missed school yesterday, but I just had to show up when I heard the news."

"Uhm, what news?" replied Terri, trying hard to breathe.

"The boys that you stopped, they.... they..."

"They raped you?" Terri finished the sentence without thinking. Suddenly Naomi started to cry and Terri stood up and had to embrace the girl. "It's okay. They caught them." Terri whispered as she tried to sooth her.

Allison, another of the squad nodded. "They called her mother last night. They went all CSI on them, and matched their DNA to samples they took from Naomi's..."

"I get it, I get it. You don't need to say anything else."

Naomi spent a few moments collecting herself. "I have to thank you for doing what I couldn't. I'm so weak, I couldn't fight them off like you did."

Terri shook her head. "I got the jump on them. They were chatting as I came in and I heard them. If they had surprised me, I'd have been overpowered too. You can't blame yourself. I'm just happy that they are now going to jail for what they did to you."

Naomi sighed and looked down. Her train of thought derailed and promptly picked up on another track.

"Whoa. Where did you get those Shoes? You must be six inches taller now."

Terri blushed. "Only two, but they are great confidence boost."

Allison took Naomi from Terri, putting her own arms around the sniffling girl's waist.

"Well, we'd best get going. Cindy is looking for you. Something about your ripped uniform. Thought I would give you a heads up."

"But I swear I wasn't the one that ripped it."

"Doesn't matter." Allison called back. "She's got you in her sights."

Terri sat back down. "Great, just what I need. Can this day get any more complicated?"

Little did she know, that someone was now looking down on her as said those very words, and had come to a fateful decision.

"You are the one. You can help me," the unseen onlooker thought to herself.

---

Synopsis: Confronted by someone who knows her secret, Terri's rage gets the better of her. she doesn't spill blood, but words, revealing a little more to the story.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter Four
Circles on the ground.

---

Terri entered classroom one-eighteen as quietly as possible, even though the cheer coach and Cindy were sitting in chairs behind the large oak desk on the far side of the room. School had let out almost an hour before and the halls were empty.

They both looked up, the coach bore a bit of surprise, but Cindy stood up, she was expecting this.

"Hello Terri."

"Uhm, one of the girls said you wanted to see me?"

Cindy walked up to Terri, her face as expressionless as a stone slate. Her eyes seemed to bore into Terri's, making her uncomfortable, despite being taller.

After a very pregnant pause, Cindy quickly snapped. "Vacuous prattling?"

"Uhm."

"Didn't think I'd know how to pronounce them, much less know their meaning?"

"Uhhhh..."

Cindy's expression suddenly changed, a half pout crossed her face.

"You still hate me, don't you?"

"What? Wha..? I... I don't understand?"

Cindy's expression changed back to being unreadable as she seemed to study her.

"Uhm..." Terri said. "I just came cause I figured you wanted me to pay for the top I ripped in that fight yesterday."

Cindy was still staring into Terri's eyes. She inhaled, then paused and exhaled.

"Terri, last night, after the police left and I went home, I thought so hard about how brave and strong you were, and I have to admit, it turned me on. I was lying there in bed, thinking of how beautiful you were and how strong and I said to myself out loud, 'But what about her penis?' and suddenly I was hit with a headache I can't describe. but I knew something was wrong and I fought it out and finally I beat it, and I suddenly could remember Everything."

"Oh shit." was Terri's response, as she began backing up.

"Terri, I remember everything, even though the magic wanted me to forget. The coach told me what happened to you this morning after I nearly screamed at her that you were a boy."

Terri just stood there, one foot planted behind her, ready to bolt if need be.

"Terri. I'm sorry, for everything."

"As long as you aren't going to hit me now that you know."

At hearing this Cindy began to cry. She squeezed out words between sniffles. "No... I'm not... going... to hit you."

Cindy grabbed for one of the desks next to them and sat down to collect herself.

After a few minutes she looked up, but as the desk had been facing the other side of the room, she faced the chalkboard.

"No, I'm not going to hurt you, ever again."

The coach, who had been sitting silently watching the drama unfold, cleared her throat and spoke.

"Terri, I want you to know that I had no part this decision, but the school board was told of the attack during your tryout and they want me to offer you a position on the team."

Terri was going to snap back with a negative response, when she felt a bundle pressed into her arm. Cindy had retrieved the pile from a counter along the side wall and was pushing them toward her.

Terri sighed. "This isn't what I had in mind. No matter what it will look like to them, I wasn't interested in being on the team. It was just something I had to do."

"Why Terri?" Asked Cindy. "Were you trying to find out if you really wanted to be a girl?"

"No, I was there because you and rest of the squad wouldn't leave me alone until I promised I would show up. I put on the uniform, and I did the dance as best I could. And no amount of magic is going to make me more coordinated. I did it because I knew those boys would be there, and I wanted to stop them."

Cindy set down the bundle on the desk next to her, then looked back up to look back into Terri's eyes again.

"Terri, tell me the truth? You don't seem to be freaking over being a girl. Do you want to be..."

And Cindy's sentence was torn apart with a screaming, "YES!" Terry gritted her teeth together as the rest of the words came out. "Alright, does it make you happy? Yes, I do. I got changed last Friday night at six pm. I had two days and an evening including the sleepless nights to freak out over this and you can better believe that I already did. I made myself sick with worry and panic. I had a headache all of Sunday afternoon and I didn't sleep a wink until Monday at two am, and I had to be back up at seven.

I can vividly recall every minute of last weekend and I thought that it was a personal hell. But about an hour before I fell asleep, I realized that both my parents thought I had always been a girl. My mother, not understanding what was really wrong nearly called a doctor after my seventh vomiting attack.

Even my neighbor, who has always called me his next door prankster had called me a princess. I suddenly realized that everyone everywhere thought I was always this way. And then, finally I got calmed down. My head was finally clear enough to tell me that I could still go to school and not be laughed at over this.

Sure, being in this body is taking some getting used to, but it's worth it. I'm not in pain anymore."

Cindy, who was still shocked at Terri's audible declaration, found herself saying, "What pain?"

Cindy motioned for the coach to come over. "Terry, what pain are you talking about?"

Terri leaned over and gripped both sides of a desk. "No, you wouldn't understand. I barely understand it."

Cindy was about to ask, when Terri stood up again, tossing the desk to the other side of the room, while screaming in rage.

Terri turned to face the cheerleader, who was about to put hands on her shoulders. "You want to know?" She asked, looking into Cindy's eyes. Cindy became frightened at what she saw.

"I was a freak before, which you should remember now, thanks to breaking that spell. You should remember that I got teased in Junior high. As long as I can remember, my whole body has hurt all the time, even while I slept, until Friday night when I changed into this. Ever since I got this body, I haven't hurt at all. I'd rather deal with being a girl the rest of my life than that pain. Do you understand?"

"Terri, please calm down." the Coach pleaded, but Terri just got angrier, pushed Cindy out of the way and stomped to the door.

She didn't even open it, just roared at it as she came near, slammed both hands against it and the hinge pins snapped, sending the door off the frame and across the hall into another doorway alcove, with a thunderous banging.

She stormed off down the hallway, still growling.

As Cindy and the coach went to the door to follow her however, a magical circle ignited in the center of the doorway, and the door soundlessly floated back over, reconnected with it's hinges, the pins mended and the door locked firmly shut on them.

"Nice trick." Said the coach, as she fiddled with the handle. "She locked us in, despite that the door is only made to lock to the outside."

"It's probably better we didn't follow her. She was mad, and that's never happened before."

"Nonsense." said the coach. "I'll call my mother. She's a user too, she can get us out. You just have to keep quiet about magic, okay?"

The coach went to her desk and dialed on her cell phone. "Hello, mom? You aren't going believe me, but I'm stuck in a room at the school and a magic circle locked the door on me. Yes I'm quite sure about it being a magic circle, it singed the carpet... Thank you. See you shortly."

Cindy was still looking at the door however, mumbling. "But you don't understand." She quietly to herself. "Terri's never gotten angry before."

---

Beatrice and three men were standing next to the locked door, one was acting as a lookout, the second was chanting as a green vapor rolled off his palms and onto the floor, repairing the carpet damage the circle had left. The third was working on the door lock, finally breaking the magic and allowing it to open.

As the Coach stepped out and over the circle, another woman, whom appeared to be older than Beatrice, appeared out of thin air.

"No one saw anything. We're clear as soon as that is cleaned up."

"Thank you mother." Said the coach.

"Now, tell me what the hell just happened here? Who did that?"

The coach gave Cindy a hand out of the door, around the two men still working.

Cindy piped in. "Wow, to think she has only been doing magic since Friday night and it takes three men to undo her work."

The woman turned toward Beatrice. "Is this our Accidental User problem?"

"Yes Augustine. It appears so."

"And what timing too, if I remember, just before the phone call to come down here, you were trying to squirm your way out of spilling some information about our accidental user, weren't you?"

"Yes Augustine. We have the registered owner of the book that Allyssa got the serial off of."

"What book mother?" asked the Cheer coach.

"Not now Jody dear. Beatrice is still trying to weasel out. It's like she doesn't want to say who it is. You'd think that they wouldn't want me to know. Like they are trying to prevent me from flying off the handle."

"Well Augustine, the doctors did say..."

"I KNOW BLOODY WELL what the doctors said. Hmph, You'd think you were trying to keep me from finding out it was Agatha Winston." she said as she turned away.

Augustine then stopped mid step. A long pause as she evaluated what she had just said. "Tell me.... Tell me right now. It. Isn't. Agatha. Winston. TELL ME!"

She spun around, looking at Beatrice, who was becoming pale.

Augustine stomped over and glared Beatrice in the eyes.

Augustine was a formidable presence in and of herself, but when angry, there were few who could stand up to her, much less near her.

Her tone this time, came out softly, and almost musically. Her fingers dancing in the air on either side of the smaller woman's face. "Lie to me Beatrice dear. Tell me it isn't Agatha Winston."

Beatrice, shaking, could not utter a word.

"But didn't you already send users out here to evaluate her abilities?"

"Yes... Augustine." Beatrice managed to reply.

"Martha, Cathryn, and the rest, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Augustine sighed, and calmly turned toward her Daughter, Jody Meyers, the cheer coach and chemistry teacher.

"Well, I guess I can't say I'm surprised. Tell me, since I don't know for sure, but I want to take a stab at this one. Is the girl's name Terri?" Augustine mused, looking at her daughter.

"Yes mother. It is. How did you know?"

"That's not important now." She replied matter of factly. "We have nothing more to do here. Lets go. Jody, can we trust this girl or does she need a memory wipe?"

"You'll have to trust her, she broke Terri's charm on herself."

"Bother." commented Augustine again. She turned to tower over Cindy. Light seemed to dance in her eyes and chill rattled the girl's bones as Augustine addressed her. "You understand that if you speak of us, or Terri's charm to others, you risk breaking it, and if you think she was mad, wait till you see what I can do. If I have to come clean up an entire school to hide a girl who wasn't a girl last week, I'll have you erased from existence. Even your own parents won't remember you."

"If you want to be on my good side. The only people you can speak to about this is my daughter, and Terri herself."

"Yes Ma'am." replied Cindy, very meekly.

"Good, lets go." And with that, Augustine Meyers, Beatrice and the three men vanished into the air without a sound.

Jody looked down at Cindy. "Don't worry too much. Mother wouldn't actually erase you, she's just stressed."

Cindy however, collapsed to the floor, having passed out several seconds earlier, her knees had just then buckled.

---

[Meanwhile, at Terri's home.]

"Martha, did you get it?" Asked Stephanie, one of the house borders."

"The door was only locked..." Martha replied. "She didn't magic it or trap it."

"So, what does it look like?" Cathryn piped in. "It's all just a burning glow to me."

Martha was becoming pale. "No, this can't be right."

"So Terri did somehow screw up the spell."

"No." replied Martha. "From the first word she was compelled to read this through to completion. She did it perfectly. Which only makes this line here all the more disturbing."

Martha was pointing at the fourth line down. The other women peeked at it out of habit, but turned their eyes away quickly.

"Dammit, you forget none of us can read Glyph. It burns the eyes just looking at it."

Another of the women looked up. "Terri just hit the end of the block, and is coming in fast and upset."

Martha paled again. "Stall her, I need to show this to the council. They need to see this."

"What's so important?"

"There was another part to this spell. said Martha. "Several parts actually, and this one is the most important."

"What did it do?" asked Cathryn.

"Martha looked at the page again, then up at the rest. "It unsealed a Vortex."

And Martha vanished from the room with a soft pop, leaving the rest to stare slack-jawed at where she had just been.

"Did... did she just say Vortex?"

Cathryn nodded. "I believe she did and WE are supposed to be testing her abilities? Damn, a fine time to leave us alone."

"Wait, Terri just passed the house and is still moving fast. She wasn't going home."

"Someone follow her." snapped Cathryn. "Find out where she is going."

---

Martha suddenly appeared in a well lit room with plenty of lighting from shining in from windows that surrounded the walls on all four sides. The walls were covered in shelves full of old books and still more shelves lined either side of the large open space in the center.

Sitting along one side of a long table, facing Martha, was the council. Seven members consisting of five woman and two men, with Allyssa's Aunt Bernice in her chair second from the left.

"Elders. I pardon my hasty interruption."

"Go ahead." replied Augustine, the chief elder, who was sitting in the center.

"I come with information on our Accidental user." Martha spoke.

"You mean Agatha Winston's Granddaughter, Terri, who just happened to become a user. Am I correct."

Martha was shook by this, seeing Augustine's almost feral grin, she shuddered and nodded vigorously. "Yes Augustine."

"We just returned from a cleanup at her school, a magic circle that surprisingly just appeared on the floor locking two people in a room, thankfully Jody happened to be one of them." Augustine replied.

Martha's eyes were wide. "You think Terri did it?"

"No, we do not, but I want to know why you are here, as I'm sure the rest of the council does."

Martha held up the notebook, with the rows of incomplete spell in glyphs.

"Elders. I was able to procure the notebook that Terri was copying the glyph spell into. I do not bring good news. Upon seeing this and translating it, I have come to the worst possible conclusion."

Augustine frowned. "Enlighten us please."

Martha sighed. "Elders, forgive me. There is another part to this spell that we were completely unaware of."

As she held up the page, and pointed to the top. "The first part of this spell is not transfiguration, nor is it charm, it is a breaking of seals, and I believe that the seals were upon Terri herself."

Looks and whispers were exchanged and surprised faces were quickly replaced by stoicism.

"You have our undivided attention." Continued Augustine.

"I believe that I can fill the gaps that Terri cannot remember, but if I am to be believing what I read here, then Terri had no less than four seals placed upon her."

"Four?" Another council member gasped out loud.

Martha nodded. "A mana seal, an incidental spell seal, one that I have not yet deciphered its purpose and one more..."

"And that is...." Augustine took the reins again, pushing the question. She did not like the suspense Martha was deliberately adding.

"A vortex seal."

The collected group gasped as a single unit. The council members discussed quietly among themselves for several seconds before returning to face Martha.

"Are you fully certain."

"If you wish me to have another glyph reader confirm this, I certainly will. I do wish this not to be the case."

"Do it. Take it the library in Queens. And tell the rest of your co-conspirators to not mention a word of this to the girl, and tell them my orders are to prove or disprove if she is a vortex or not.

"Yes elder. I was also going to ask when do you want to see her?"

"It will have to be this weekend. That will give the Library time to authenticate your findings. True or not, We can no longer just try to hide things from her. She needs to hear everything."

"Yes elder, we will make sure she is here."

"Anything else to report?"

"Yes, she is progressing in magic rather quickly, and is already casting spells silently. Allyssa, niece of Elder Beatrice observed her doing it."

"All the more reason she needs to be set down and have things explained." said Augustine. Saturday, two o'clock."

"Yes Elder."

Martha tapped her watch and popped from the room without making any noise.

The elders turned toward Augustine, who was sitting there, crushing several sheets of paper in one hand. "Agatha. Damn you. You always knew, didn't you. You made that spell and that circle on the floor, I am sure of it, and you knew you would have a grand-daughter, who 'Became' a user. Fitting that your dying wishes come to haunt us."

"Augustine, try to control you temper." Said Beatrice.

Augustine jumped to her feet, knocking her chair over behind her. In a fit of rage she snarled as she grabbed the edge of the table and threw it over onto it's side, spilling paperwork and several beverage cups onto the floor. "Damn Agatha." She turned to the rest of the council. "Don't you get it?"

"Yes, I think we all do." said Beatrice. "Agatha has once again proven that she had abilities more than what she ever claimed. I think she knew her grandchild was a vortex, and sealed him up until now, so that as an adult he could be more prepared to enter our world, than as a powerful child. It will be much easier to deal with her now. She did do us a great favor."

"But why did Agatha add a charm and a transmutation spell to it?" Augustine nearly shouted, her voice tinging on becoming horse. "Why did Agatha turn her grandson into a female and practically force her to have to live that way?"

There was no response from the other council members.

Augustine then lowered her head. "All the clues are here somewhere, but like a good old puzzle some of the pieces are still missing."

---

Allyssa walked along a narrow path that snaked its way through the trees. The neatly trimmed grass on either side of her gave off the aroma of being freshly cut. The patches of perinea tulips and daises that adorned the path at regular intervals were blooming in brilliant color.

She stopped as the narrow path came to a crossroads. She could see her target up ahead, sitting on a bench facing away from her.

Allyssa mused that the park near the school was an excellent place if one needed a little time to oneself, though her own Gothic attire seemed out of place.

She approached the bench from behind, careful not to make any sudden moves. "Terri, is that you?" A pair of beefy muscular arms lay across the back the bench, from one side to the other.

Allyssa walked around the bench and sat down next to him.

He was easily twice her size, with a well toned chest to go along with his arms. A tight T-shirt tucked into denim jeans allowing him to show off all the contours of his physique.

Terry was also sporting a Vandyke goatee which was was a bit lighter in color than the now short spiked style on top of his head. "I suppose you are wondering why I'm male."

Allyssa shook her head. "Not really. I saw Cindy and Ms. Meyers leaving the school. She said you had gotten upset and run off. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Well, I got the cheerleader job now, no thanks to yesterday, plus Cindy knows my secret. She got in my face about being a girl and I snapped."

Allyssa nodded. "I got told you said you freaked out all last weekend. Did you?"

"Yes." replied Terry. "Yes, I did. I didn't know about the charm until early Monday morning so I was dreading school much more than usual. When I came to my senses though, I managed to get enough sleep for Monday, just so I could freak out again on you after class."

"I'm sorry Terry, if I had known what you were going through..."

"What? What could you have done? I still have to face life as a girl. I honestly don't know why I ran here and changed back into a guy."

Allyssa turned to look at him. "What I wonder is, why did you change yourself into THAT male form and not your old one? You didn't..."

Terry interrupted. "I am quite aware I did not look this masculine before, I'd rather not say why."

Allyssa turned back to facing forward. "There was a rumor once that you shaved parts of your body, but in a weird pattern."

Tery sighed. "You have got it half right. I didn't shave, but I had the strangest lack of hair. I was a freak."

Terry pointed to his left arm. "This had little blond peach fuzz, never more, but my right arm looked like a gorilla. Same with the right side of my face. My chest had this line on it..." drawing a line down across his shirt from his left armpit to his right hip. "... from here to here. I was hairless below the line and fine floor rug above it."

Allyssa chuckled softly. "I see, so that is why you shaved your legs?"

"Yeah. They looked kinda like a barber pole. Plus any part that didn't grow hair also lacked muscle tone. I wish I understood it."

"That sounds serious. I wonder if there was something magical to due with that."

"I'm certain of it." stated Terry.

"How do you know?"

"Because I have never felt this way before now. Both when I was female, and now like this, something inside me has aligned itself up and I feel... something that I have lacked before."

"I see. Anyway, The coach wanted me to ask you something else."

"What?"

"She said that during your conversation with Cindy, she let slip she might have hurt you..."

"In junior high, she and a bunch of other kids beat me up pretty bad. I had bruises all over and I stayed home for a few days to recover. I had been growing hair above the line on my chest already in eighth grade, and one of them saw it and thought I was a freak, and I agreed with them. I just let them beat the snot outta me. I couldn't seem to get mad at them."

"Have you ever gotten mad, I mean before, well you know..."

"I don't remember."

Allyssa continued to stare forward. Cindy had been there and told her that she had never known Terri to get angry, not ever. Allyssa had asked why she knew this and Cindy had just clammed up.

Allyssa just leaned back and settled in against Terry's body, closing her eyes.

"Uhm, what are you doing?"

"Can't I just nap on your impressive manliness for a minute?" she replied with a smile.

"Are you saying that just to get a rise out of me, or do I make you wet?"

Allyssa grinned. "Hey now, you aren't a girl at the moment, no talking like that. How about if we meet in the middle somewhere and I say you are handsome. Is that good?"

"I think you are pretty too."

"Thank you. May I also say that If this course goes any further, I want equal dating time with both your male and female sides."

"Uhm what?"

"You need to get out a bit more. I think that you and I need to go clubbing sometime, just us girls."

"I suppose that I've have to find myself some fishnet stockings and a spiked collar."

"Hey, that sounds like a good start. But you got that great suit now, remember. It would probably save you the money of buying that stuff. Those boots you were wearing at lunch almost made me want to ask where you got them till I realized it was the suit."

"That reminds me." Terry commented. He looked down at his T-shirt. "Methinks this needs a jacket. Black leather."

He then began to look down and after his eyes darted around to see that there were no witnesses except Ally, he kissed his shoulder.

The material seemed to flow up from behind him and solidified into a jacket which seemed to satisfy him. "Nice work."

"You are getting the hang of that symbiont, and fast too. Jen said you were imitating a Jungle Feline this morning." said Allyssa with a smile. "She was worried you would ask the suit for ears and a tail to complete the outfit."

"Really? Can it do that?"

"Oh yes, and the tail would act like part of you, moving and curling around. It would disturb quite a few people."

"Next you'll be telling me that It can give me wings."

"They would be costume only, you wouldn't actually be able to fly with them." replied Allyssa.

"I'll keep that in mind."

"So are you feeling better?" she asked him, as she put an arm across his chest.

Terry was about to reply when shouting from behind them interrupted his train of thought.

At the intersection of the footpaths about fifty feet behind him and Ally, a woman was starting to scream at a man who was clearly trying to assert control over her. His hand was tightly gripping her wrist and she was struggling to free herself.

"Let me go. I said NO!" The woman cried out.

"Cmon baby, I bought you drinks and dinner. Don't I get something in return?"

Allyssa turned toward Terry to see if they should intervene when she noticed he was already on his way to do just that.

Terry snapped his fingers and black shades appeared in his right hand, he flipped the bows open and slipped them on.

At the same time the man was getting more aggressive and the woman was switching to crying, the pressure on both wrists he now held was becoming painful. His back was toward the bench and did not see Terry coming.

Allyssa swore she saw light reflecting off the knuckles on Terry's hand, but as it formed into a fist, Allyssa realized it was the same effect as in the locker room. This time, Terry's arms and legs were bulking up at incredible speed. His hands were also increasing in size, the glowing blue only served to make him look like a hulk wannabe.

Allyssa pulled her cellphone out of her pocket, dialed a number and waited for the other end to pick up.

"Hello." Came the voice from the other end.

"Aunt Beatrice. I have a problem. Terry is making carpet stains and dirty floors and is about to ruin our party. I don't think I can take care of this myself."

"Understood, we're on our way."

---

"Beatrice, what's going on." Asked Augustine, sitting at her place in the center of the table.

"That was Allyssa. We need cleaners and sweepers on the double. Our accidental user problem has just gone to the next level."

Augustine sighed. She rapped the tabletop with her knuckles, and a phone appeared there. She picked it up, and shouted into it.

"Mobilize all cleaner and sweeper teams. Set touchdown locks on Elder Beatrice's niece Allyssa. Prepare for worst possible scenario."

---

Allyssa had just finished casting a confinement spell, and was working on putting the woman to sleep, while Terry's left hand had wrapped itself around the throat of the man and was picking him up by his neck. Terry's hands were easily the size of Allyssa's head now and the arms attached were no less impressive.

The man found himself flying through the air, only to strike the containment shield with a resounding 'Whudd.'

Allyssa heard a popping behind her and turned to see enough users teleporting in to form a regiment.

They quickly began casting spells to put everyone in the entire park to sleep to prevent scared people from fleeing and alerting outsiders. Then Augustine stepped forward, to face Terry, in his over-sized muscular state. He seemed to be radiating a berserker quality.

He turned and finally saw them and reacted by charging at the group, his fists cocking back and an almost inhuman growl escaping his throat.

Only twenty feet from Augustine however, his footfall ignited another ring of glowing runes in the grass, and suddenly the blue glow began to bleed off him and into the air, so quickly that by the time he reached Augustine, he was back to his previous size and passed out into her arms.

"What the heck was that?" asked one of the cleaners.

Augustine peered over at the burnt patch of grass, the symbols still easy to make out. "Someone take photos of that from every angle possible then get it repaired. I want this park spotless in an hour."

The teams went to work, while Allyssa took the still unconscious Terry and laid him on the ground.

"Elder, I saw that before, on Tuesday when he was a she and fought off two boys. I saw it falling away like that."

Augustine put a hand on her shoulder. "I think this weekend will be too late. I think we need to set Terry down Tonight."

---

Synopsis: Terri gets to meet the Council and quite a few things are revealed. Like who might be responsible for all her problems...

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter Five
The Council.

---

Terry woke up, lying on a reclining chair. There was a throbbing in his head as he sat up, only to find himself in what appeared to a library.

He looked around seeing the council sitting along their table looking at him. To his right, Allyssa and the women staying at his house who were to be teaching him magic.

He looked at Allyssa, and then pointed with one finger held against his chest toward the table, mouthing "Council?" at her. Allyssa nodded and turned to face them.

"How are you feeling Terry?" Asked Augustine. "Your episode this afternoon in the park left us a bit worried, so we decided that we needed to speak with you right away."

Terry gulped, then turned and faced the council. "Oh, yeah, I suppose so. I don't know what really came over me. I was getting angry at that guy and I just suddenly snapped..."

"And used mana to boost your physical size and strength."

"Uhm, yeah. I'm not sure how I did that."

Augustine held out her hand, and a book from a shelf to the left of the table sailed over and into her grasp.

"This book has a great deal of good information that you might find useful, including how and why that happened, but we brought you here in order to explain the basics of your situation."

"Uhm..." Said Terry as an uncomfortable twinge rippled over his skin. "Pardon me, but I think my transformation spell is wearing off."

He closed his eyes, and shuttered slightly as his very skin seemed to liquefy and began remolding itself into the female form that Terri had become.

Hips began to widen, muscles shrunk, and his hair lengthened. The skin on his face reshaped itself and softened until he was a she and back to her almost angelic appearance. As the breasts increased in size, her symbiotic suit transformed itself back into the cat suit pattern from earlier in the day.

"Ugh, ok. I'm still not used to that. I'm sorry, please continue." She said.

Augustine smiled. "You'll get used to it the more you do it. I suspect you'll be transforming yourself often from now on."

"Always good to know." replied Terri.

"Well, back down to business." Beatrice interrupted. "We need to explain many things to you today."

"Right." said Augustine. "I think we are going to start with the spell that changed you."

"You know about it?" Asked Terri.

"We know quite a bit about the spell. Allyssa had explained to us about how you managed to pull off all the effects with only one spell. One of your instructors retrieved your memorized copy of that spell, and we've pooled some resources for you. We'll soon have a set of spells for you to restore everything the way it was before."

"Really? You'd do that for me?" Terri asked, being both apprehensive and excited.

"Well, with all the things that your grandmother did to you...” replied Augustine, but was interrupted by Terri.

"My Grandma? What does she have to do with all this?"

"Well, we believe she created the spell."

"Grandma is dead. She passed away when I was TEN! HOW CAN YOU BLAME HER for this?!" Terri shouted, and then pulled her legs up to her chest as she finished.

Allyssa was watching the exchange; she thought to herself that Terri still had not adjusted to the new hormone levels. Hopefully the council would not be cross over her behavior.

But everyone in the room was surprised as Augustine was at Terri's side a moment later, her arm around the now sobbing girl.

"I'm sorry Terri. You must have loved your Grandmother. I miss her too; she was one of my best friends.

"But she's gone. How could she do this to me?"

Augustine sighed. "Sometimes, the dead have ways. In fact, since her death, your Grandmother has left me enough clues to prove that she was a Precognitive."

"A what?"

"Precognition is future awareness, or future sight. We believe she could see events in the future. I believe that your Grandmother was probably watching us have this very conversation, back when she was alive. I believe this, because I have every reason to believe that she was probably the greatest precognitive on the planet."

Terri just sat there, transfixed by what Augustine was saying.

"Terri, I am sure that your grandmother was... Is responsible for everything that has happened to you this last week. I wish I could tell you why though."

"Me too." commented Terri Idly.

Augustine smiled. "That’s perfect then."

"What is?" Terri asked.

"Well, it's my birthday in two weeks, and after your Grandmother died, she left me a box with presents for each of my birthdays these last eight years. Every year the gift has been exactly what I wanted, and I hope this year will be no exception."

"I don't understand." Said Terri

"Because you see, there is only one thing I want this year. An explanation. And I am sure that in that last box is what I want, because she left me a clue. She addressed it to me... and you as well."

"Uhm, do you think we could open it now?" Asked Terri.

"If I could, I would do it, that I promise you. But Agatha seemed to not trust my ability not to peek, for the last present is sitting outside the rules of normal reality, meaning I can see it in the bottom of the box, but I cannot touch it yet.

It seems she wanted you to wait for an explanation too. I'm sorry."

Terri looked down. "It's okay. Grandma told me once that I was special and that she loved me, but that one day something would happen that would make me want to hate her. I think she was referring to today."

"What else did she tell you?" Augustine asked, tightening her hold on the girl, trying to make her feel better.

"She said that I would forgive her when it was all over."

"So there is still more to her temporal machinations."

A woman appeared of to the side of the council table. "My pardons elders."

Augustine looked up where she had been kneeling. "Did you find it?"

"Exactly where you thought it would be, the doorway of the girls locker room. The residual in the area defines it as almost a decade old, same with the classroom door one."

"Any others?"

"Yes, Two in Terri's room. Both set off. Both about the same age as the other two."

Augustine appeared lost in thought for a moment, while Beatrice took the reins. "Do you know what they did?"

"The locker room was a mana block. It could have sealed up any users ability to regenerate mana for several weeks. It was too overly powerful."

"Same as the park one then."

"Yes."

"And the classroom?"

"Repair and lock spell. All the circles thus far had a timer to prime after ten years. Activation by a secondary unknown trigger."

"What about her room then?" Asked Augustine, returning to control of the conversation.

"Timers on them just like the rest. Both were compulsion spells. One was to calm and sleep, was set off two days after the other. Monday morning to be exact. The other's compulsion is unknown."

"I see."

The woman then turned, and walked in between the stacks and Terri lost sight of her. She had been listening however and decided it was time to speak up. "Ten year old timers, spells that I set off? Grandma really has been playing with me after death, hasn't she? She even helped me get to sleep Monday morning?"

"Yes Terri, it appears so,” said Augustine with a sigh.

"Terri, you need to stay strong now. You have to, for me and everyone here. No one here knew who you were a week ago. Your grandmother said that her daughter was not capable of magic and had taken her out of our world, so she could live normally. No one here knew you even existed, but we all care about you, especially now. I promise you that in two weeks, you and I and many others are going to be here, and we can open our gift together."

There was nothing said, no sound for several seconds, as Terri had tried to disappear in Augustine's embrace.

"Ahem." Beatrice cleared her throat. "Well, that certainly explains how you knew her name this afternoon. But we have that other bit of business to attend to. The other revelation."

"Yes, of course." Replied Augustine. She reached into the pocket of her slacks and pulled out a small rounded, smooth, and flat stone. It looked similar to the stones used in fish tanks.

"Do you have any idea what this is?"

Terri brightened up as she saw it. "Oh yeah, I've seen those before."

"This isn't something you find at a pet store."

Terri snatched the stone out of Augustine's hand, as she said. "Yeah, cause you can make this one glow!"

As Terri held it, a glowing from the center of the stone began radiating outward until it was almost as bright as a candle.

"Yes, you're quite right. May I have it back?"

"Sure," said Terri, handing it back to her. "I just haven't figured out how to get it to stop shining. What's the trick to it?"

Augustine stood up and walked it over to the table setting it down, the other council members leaned forward to see it, then returned to their positions.

"Terri, how do you know about this stone?"

"Well, in the trunk in my attic where I found the spell, there is a whole mess of them. I must have spent ten minutes getting them all to glow, but like I said, I haven't figured out how to make them stop."

Augustine paled. "Just a moment." she said as she rapped on the table and picking up the receiver for the phone that had appeared. She spoke quietly into it for several seconds, and then set the receiver down.

"Terri, these are called storing stones, and they glow when mana is put into them, to store and save for another day."

"Uhm, okay."

At that moment, two men appeared holding a large steamer trunk. Augustine recognized it from seeing it at Agatha's home years before.

"Hey, that's the trunk. The one I found the spell in." Terri chimed, excitedly.

Augustine walked over, lifted the lid only an inch and was treated to a bright glow from the interior. Shutting it, she looked up and down between the rows. "Marcene, can you come here please?"

Said girl who had reported on the circles returned to view. "Yes Elder?"

"Could you come take a look at this?"

The girl walked around the case and Augustine lifted the lid an inch again, and Marcene shielded her eyes.

"This was in her attic, only feet from the two circles, how could you have possibly missed it?"

Marcene tried to answer, but Augustine took control of the conversation.

"Take tomorrow then, and go over every inch of the school, her home, the park and everything within two miles of her home, and more thoroughly than last time. You find anything, anything at all, you let me know."

"Yes Elder, I'm sorry I failed elder."

"It's alright."

Marcene looked around to see how many people had witnessed this reprimand and her eyes locked on Terri. She seemed to stare a moment too long before turning and disappearing between the shelves once again.

"Alright, where was I, ok Magic one-oh-one." Said Augustine as she walked back toward Terri.

"I was hoping I wouldn't need to have to explain this to you, because it hurts to think about it. But I have to be the one to tell you that you are a very special kind of user. You, Terri, are a Vortex."

The room was filled with murmuring and gasps, no one but Augustine had kept a neutral expression. Allyssa was sitting there, her mouth agape.

"What's a vortex?" asked Terri, showing no lack of confusion on her face.

"Well, you know what mana is, right? You have that nice symbiotic suit that you have to give mana to make it work, so I assume you know what it is."

"Yes ma'am."

"Well, mana is like the magical equivalent of fatigue. If you and I were to go run a mile, we would both be tired, and we would no longer have the energy we did earlier. And we would probably need to sleep to recover it."

"Well, mana works the same way. Users can use up all their mana for the day, and then the only way to recharge is to sleep. Every user in this room is limited to how much magic they can cast in a day... everyone but you."

Terri looked at her. "That's the vortex?"

"Yes. You are able to recharge mana almost as soon as you use it and fast. You should easily able to outcast or out-magic everyone in this room."

"There is a good and bad side to this, I will admit. I think there is a book here in the library that will explain your unique ability better than I can."

"How do you know for sure, that I am this vortex?

"Because, in order for me or anyone else to have made all the stones in that trunk glow, it would have taken us months. Because we would run out after filling only a few, but you said you filled all these in ten minutes."

Terri started to blush, she was suddenly aware that everyone was watching her.

"Terri, I do want to say one more thing. That spell that made you what you are, also unlocked the vortex. It had been sealed away, probably since you were an infant. This is a good thing, because all that mana being drawn into you plays havoc with the body and you would age very slowly. The last vortex still looked like an infant when he was six years old. Your grandmother sealed you up, possibly so at least you could become a normal looking adult before your aging slows down. I do hope she explains that."

"Yeah, me too." Commented Terri.

"Now, it's getting late, and your mother will be worried. Allyssa, can you take Terri home?"

"I think so elder."

"Good. I want to speak with everyone else here after you leave, and Terri?"

"Yes?"

"You are the first vortex in almost thirty years. I wouldn't gloat over it. I recommend that no one outside this room be told. You'll have many jealous users after you. Oh, and here is that book I wanted you to read."

Augustine picked up the book from the table and tossed it to her, and then Allyssa took Terri's arm and they both disappeared.

"Elder, may I speak with you again?" called Marcene from the shadows at the end of the shelf.

"At once, what did you see?" Augustine said, motioning for her to return.

She looked into Marcene's eyes as the girl wistfully approached, and reveled in the fact nothing more than white orbs. The girl was blind, yet could see more than most.

"The girl. That was Terri, right?"

"Yes, it was."

"Didn't you say that spell broke four seals on her?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"I saw the remains of the four, but there was a fifth."

The room had already been shocked once tonight, and all in attendance were again stunned. The calm whispers replaced by alarmed muffled speech that increased in volume until Augustine silenced them all.

"QUIET, everyone. Marcene, did you say a fifth seal?"

"Yes elder."

"I suppose it was too far away to gain any idea what it did?"

"It was in Glyph, and I cannot read it, it burned just to behold."

"Figures. I wonder what that one is for?"

A male elder, whom until that time not spoken over a whisper, asked. "Do you think that Agatha goofed and forgot, or that Terri herself goofed the spell?"

Augustine turned to face him. "No Gregory, I do not. I think that seal is there for a reason, and knowing about it is the only thing Agatha is allowing us, for now."

"Listen up everyone. "The rules have changed, and you are all witness..."

---

"Ally?" asked Terri, as they walked down the street toward her home. Allyssa had Teleported them both to an alley near the school, somewhere safe that no one would see them. "I have some questions." She said.

"I'll answer what I can." Allyssa replied.

"You knew I was some kind of powerful user, didn't you?"

"The moment you showed me the spell on the bleachers."

"Did the council order you not to tell me?"

"I assumed they would, and I did downplay your ability there while I tried to keep you calm."

"Thank you. I don't know if I could have withstood all this new information at once. Being a surrogate mother to my outfit's child still has me reeling.

"You mean you found another suit? You're carrying already?"

"No, not yet. I was speaking about the idea of it. I'm so deep in this magic stuff, it's hard to breath, despite the two inch thick soles on these boots."

"It is a lot to take in isn't it?"

Terri was about to comment, when Allyssa exclaimed. "Shoot. I need to get you home and your mother can't see me like this, and I used up all the mana I had today dealing with you."

Terri looked at her. "You need some extra mana?"

"If you wouldn't mind."

"I'd almost think you wanted me to recharge your battery or something."

"You must not have figured out how you are going to give it to me yet."

"On the contrary." Replied Terri, as she pulled Allyssa into an embrace, and pressed her lips against the shorter girl's.

Allyssa murmured softly, trying to smile, then suddenly moaned, her eyes wide, as the mana being poured into her came in faster than she had expected.

Terri finally broke the kiss, looking at Allyssa, whose head was shivering.

"Was that enough?"

"Damn girl, 'Was that enough?' she asks. That's more than I normally get in a day!"

"Oh, sorry."

"Don't be, that was a rush."

"So you enjoyed it too."

"Yeah, but next time, use my other lips if you want to be so forceful."

Terri blushed an ever-deeper shade of red. Allyssa swore she could see her cheeks glowing.

"Damn, you're so easy to embarrass." said Allyssa. She threw her arms around Terri for another quick embrace.

"So, about that change...” Terri idly commented.

"Sorry." said Allyssa, breaking the hug. She began reciting a spell and Terri watched as her hair went from black with violet stripes to a dark auburn and her skin becoming a warmer tint.

The various studs in her eyebrows, nose and lip disappeared leaving her with one small stud in each ear and no other puncture marks. Her makeup seemed to un-apply itself, uncurling from around her eyelashes and disappearing all together, leaving her natural face behind.

Her Goth attire morphed from fishnets and a short skirt to denim jeans with a hint of flaring at the bottom, possibly to hide her boots, which remained. Her layers of fishnet, tube top and spiked leather that covered her torso became a simple V-neck women's T-shirt that was lavender in color.

"There. How do I look?"

"Like a different person. Still beautiful, but different."

"Hey! Before you said I was only pretty!"

"Uhm, what can I say. I'm not really into Goth."

"Okay, I can live with that. At least you are being honest. I was almost sure you were afraid of me."

Terri replied, "I'd rather be honest with you. You're trying so hard to be a friend to me, even though we haven't talked before I looked like this."

Allyssa put her arms around Terri again. She waited a moment, before responding. "Well, to be honest, I hadn't considered you in the whole scheme of my daily life. When you showed up on Monday, you suddenly took my entire focus."

"Before, the only time we would have spoken was when you got in my way. Being a user makes me feel better than everyone else, makes me feel powerful. Now I have to give you that honor, and you aren't going to take advantage of that, are you?"

"I'm not better than you Ally. If I'm anything more than you, it's in the category of being screwed up. I'll bow to your superiority any day."

Allyssa chuckled. "No no, you just need to calm down and take everything with a grain of salt."

Terri sighed. "Yeah well, grain of salt or not, I got the feeling that Augustine was trying to hide something from me."

"How so?" asked Allyssa.

"Augustine said it pained her to have to tell me that I was a Vortex. I wonder what she meant by that."

Allyssa nodded. "You wouldn't know the story, I suppose I could tell you. It's not as though it's a secret. You aren't lucky to be a vortex, it's a curse. The last three vortexes did not live past their ninth birthdays, so consider yourself fortunate to have gone this long."

"So all this mana could kill me?"

"No, the reason Augustine was in pain to tell you that, is because she ..."

"She what? She gave birth to him? She raised him, she watched him barf on the Queen of England, what?"

"She had to kill him."

---

Conspiracies abound, Between Terri's dead Grandmother still playing with the fates, the cheerleaders still trying to get her to join them. Terri just wants some peace and calm...like that will happen!
 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter Six
The Master Plan

---

"What do you mean kill him?" Asked Terri, her face now pale.

"Augustine was part of the attack force of users sent to stop the last vortex thirty years ago. Of over three hundred users that answered the call, only sixteen survived. Augustine had the dubious honor of driving a single spear of ice through a doorway and then a gap in the Vortex's shield defense. It killed him instantly, allowing the building that other users dropped on him to finally fall and finish the job." Allyssa stated.

"Geez." replied Terri. "And she holds herself responsible."

"Yeah. I think she is hoping she won't have to do the same to you."

"She wasn’t the only one. Why did she have to kill him? And why did all those users die attacking him?"

Allyssa's grip on Terri tightened as she pressed her neck further into the taller girl's chest.

"The downside to being a vortex is that spells inducing mental control on another person work much easier on them. If anyone ever tried to take control of you, you would have a very hard time resisting."

"The last vortex was under the control of a wizard named Nethizar. He is also believed to have died in the battle, but no one is sure.

Nethizar was a great user, at least in a few of the areas. He could throw up powerful shields that could withstand massive evocation attacks. He could also beguile, or take mental control over nearly everyone. He saw the last vortex as an unstoppable force he could use to take over the world."

"So that's why the other vortex had to die. He was turned into a mere tool." replied Terri.

"Pretty much. The building was raised up and dropped on him, forcing him to use his overhead shield to withstand the downward force, and enough of his power that his forward shield started splitting apart. One of those holes created was open at the right time and place for Augustine's projectile."

"I see." said Terri, lost in thought.

"Hey, don't look now, but there are cheerleaders at your front door." commented Allyssa as they neared Terri's home.

"Oh damn, what could they possibly want?"

Approaching the door, Terri recognized Cindy, Naomi and Melissa. All three were chatting with her mother who was sitting on the porch swing.

As they approached, the girls spotted them both and quickly said their goodbyes to Terri's mother and met them at the sidewalk in front of the house.

"Terri, I'm sorry, but..." Cindy started.

"...But we all know about..." interrupted Naomi.

"About me?" asked Terri.

All three girls nodded.

Allyssa scowled. "I thought Augustine told you not to say anything, Cindy."

"I didn't." protested Cindy. "They got there the same way I did, by masturbating while thinking about you!"

Naomi and Melissa both turned red at this declaration, while Allyssa grinned evilly at Terri, who had just dropped her jaw wide open and was staring at them.

Several moments went by until Allyssa replied. "The charm break seems to be contagious Terri. Need me to call Augustine and have their muggle minds wiped?"

"No." Terri snapped flatly. "I want to know why you three are here then, if nothing but to get me to switch schools or towns or something. If you know who I was, how come you aren't calling me a pervert, weirdo or something?"

Naomi shook her head. "Cindy told me that you said you didn't want to be a cheerleader and you just did it because it needed to be done. You were doing it to help me."

Terri looked at her. "Please don't make me regret that decision."

Naomi then threw herself at Terri, wrapping arms around the taller girl.

"I can't remember a time when everyone at school wasn't cruel to you, including me. Now Cindy said you were in pain constantly, and that becoming a woman took that away. I want you to be happy now and if this is what it takes, then I will help you in any way I can."

"Me too." said Melissa. "I regret making fun of you. Since Monday I've been looking at you and wondering why I hadn't noticed someone so pretty before. I couldn't remember that you had always been there."

"We all did." added Cindy. "But now we know the secret and it made us realize how awful we've been to you. I think we all want to see you happy."

"You know..." commented Terri. "I am getting a bad feeling about this." She peeled Naomi off her, setting the girl in front of her again.

"Me too.” replied Allyssa. "Something is fishy here. If all one had to do was, Ahem, touch oneself inappropriately while thinking about you, I'm sure more than half the boys at school would already know."

"Yeah... ewww. I feel so dirty all of a sudden." remarked Terri.

Allyssa looked at the three girls. "Would you three mind if I scryed on you for a moment?"

Cindy shook her head. "Sure, whatever."

Allyssa put the fingertips on her left hand onto the middle of her forehead, and turned to look at each of the girls with her eyes closed. Her head tilted, examining them from top to bottom.

"Terri, we have a major problem." Allyssa stated.

"What?"

"Someone or something broke the charm on these girls. It wasn't just them."

"Grandma again?"

"I couldn't say, but I'm going to report it. Someone will likely need to go check out where they were when they broke the charm."

"So what now?" asked Terri?

"Well." Cindy replied. "We left your uniform with your mother. It's spirit day tomorrow. Miss Meyers thought it would be difficult to convince the school board that you tried out to be a cheerleader when you actually didn't want to be part of the team. She thought that if you could stand to wear the uniform over your bodysuit again like you did, you could go through classes for the day. If you could also try to be a little cheerful, that wouldn't hurt either."

"Instead of the seething ball of anger you are now..." added Naomi.

Terri loosened her bite, and then sighed. "I suppose you're right. I guess I'll just do it."

Cindy thought for a moment then added. "It will mean, of course, that you'll have to sit with us at lunch. But I promise you that we’ll be in our most intelligent behavior."

"I can't wait." Terri replied as she turned and marched up the path to the house.

"Okay you three." Snapped Allyssa. "I'm sure Cindy already mentioned the rules for keeping Terri's big secret. The same goes for you two. But I need to know right now, where you where when you broke the charm. Don't lie, cause you'll be doing her no good. All I need it for is to have someone check the room for trace magic."

"Bedroom, my home." replied Naomi. "I was on my bed."

"Same." added the other two.

"Ok, I'll let the people in charge know. Now go home. A lot of stuff happened today and your little revelation might be the last straw. I think Terri's about to suffer another breakdown."

Allyssa turned and dashed up the walk, only to find Terri laying against her mother on the porch swing. Terri's eyes were closed, and tears were already beginning to flow down one cheek.

"Terri, are you okay?"

"No, I'm not."

Terri's mother looked at Allyssa. "You don't have to worry. I'll take care of her. She's just having a bad week. What with the assault and her illness last weekend, I think she's just strained herself a little too much."

"Well, ok then. I'll just go home and come back tomorrow to walk with her to school if that's ok?"

"That would be perfect Allyssa, if you arrive early enough I'll treat you to homemade waffles."

“Thank you Ma'am. I should be going now. It's getting dark and the streets aren't as safe as used to be."

With that, Allyssa jogged down the path, and onto the sidewalk, disappearing behind a row of bushes sculpted into a hedge.

Terri's mother helped her daughter to her feet. "C’mon sweety. Let’s get to get you to bed."

"Yes Momma." Terri replied as she was led inside and upstairs to her room.

---

The next day began great for Terri. She woke up feeling great and surprised her mother by having breakfast well underway before anyone was up. Allyssa soon arrived to partake in the promised waffles and the boarders were quite impressed by Terri's skill flipping pancakes and eggs on the griddle at high speed.

The walk to school during a light breeze only served as a constant remember of her new obligation and the new level of uncomfortable-ness she had gotten herself into.

She mused at her attire for the day. The symbiant had taken on its black cat suit appearance with the boots once again. Terri had attempted to ask it if the soles would wear down, thus depleting the suit's mass, but it had informed her not to worry.

Clothed over top of the suit, was the cheerleader uniform, mocking her with all it seemed to represent - to her anyway. Terri decided that she would not fall into the stereotypical cheerleader and would, in fact, stay true to herself - even at the expense of everyone else.

She had managed to make it through the first three periods before lunch, staying perky and attentive in class. She even asked questions which actually sounded intelligent but, in fact, caused her classmates to realize that she was trying to act dumb in order to make the teacher’s job a little harder. The evil grin she sported just after raising her hand served to warn everyone that she was in rare form.

Lunchtime came. She remembered that she had agreed to sit with the cheer squad.

She walked over and took a seat with them, shocking two of the girls who hadn't been informed of this new development.

"Hello Terri, how is school going?" Cindy asked.

"It's doing alright. I guess that I can tolerate this. I find that an evil grin works better than a smile." Terri replied, while showing them the proof.

"Do you think you can wear that on all spirit days?"

"I was hoping not to, but so far since… uh, last weekend, my life has been never-ending attempts at getting me to do things I don't want to."

"Well there is one benefit of that uniform that you might not be aware of."

"And that is?"

Cindy motioned to a boy navigating the chairs and tables on his way to their table.

"That boy there has been staring at you since you got here. Now, don't say a single word. Let me do the talking."

"Hey, I'm not going out on a date with anyone!"

"Just watch, ye of little faith."

Cindy sat there and faced the boy as he approached.

"Hey Terri. I was wondering...."

"Excuse me, do you not know the rules?"

"Oh? What rules?" asked the young man.

"We're cheerleaders. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week, but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, or in the case of financial decisions, which require a two-thirds majority to pass." Cindy rattled off.

"I don't get it..." he replied.

"It's simple. Are you trying to ask one of our members on a date? Girls, time to vote."

"All in favor?" This was followed by only one of the girls at the table actually raising her hand, but only halfway when she noticed no one else was and promptly lowered it.

"All Opposed?" followed by everyone's hand except Terri's rising up, since she was now overcome with shock and awe.

"Motion failed. I am sorry sir. The collective has forbidden Terri from dating at this time."

"When would be a good time then?" the boy asked, some of his confidence returning.

"Try next month, possibly after she has recovered from the rape incident only a few days ago. But ask a member for a vote first. Those are the rules."

Dejected, but unharmed, the boy sauntered off back to his own table.

"And here I thought you were an idiot." Terri piped in. "Did you just use a Monty Python reference?"

"Yes, and terribly I might add. I know I screwed it up there near the end. Oh well. He bought it and everyone played along. Thank you all for your support." Cindy chimed.

Terri just stared down at her lunch bag. "I don't know what to say."

"You're one of us now." Cindy replied. "Now you won't be bothered by the rest of the cliques. We're hiding your secret, and we're all committed to helping you embrace this gift."

"What do you mean all?"

"Oh yeah. I forgot to mention. A few nervous phone calls I got this morning made it clear that he whole squad knows. But no one else."

"THE WHOLE SQUAD!" Terri snapped. "Am I everyone's fantasy all of a sudden?"

"Well yes, but that isn't the point. Most of the squad is into the opposite sex and were not thinking about you in the same way I was. I think your grandma or whoever broke mine, must have gone and done everyone's last night."

"Oh great. So all of you know?"

Heads around the table nodded. Another girl spoke up. "Terri, was Cindy right? Were you in pain?"

Terri nodded, her train of thought broken. "Yeah." She looked at her hands, rubbing the back of one with the other palm. "It still feels so weird to be able to touch my own skin without feeling a sharp tingle. Even a breeze used to hurt. It's so much better now. Even if I go back to being male, I don't hurt anymore. I figure all I need to do is suffer through the last three months of school like this and I can go off to college and be a man full time. If I choose somewhere far off, no one from here would be there and I wouldn't be recognized."

"You aren't in pain anymore, but you still think being female is suffering?"

"I…I didn't mean it like that!" Terri exclaimed to the girl across the table.

"Sounds like we need to plan a girl's day." said Cindy, now sporting her own evil grin.

"Sleepover?" asked another.

"Nails, toes, hair and giving backrubs and should massages?"

"Oh yes, all that and a shopping trip in there too." replied Cindy.

"Since this will obviously be Terri's first, I think we'll have to hold it over at my place." Said Melissa. "My dad will be out of town for the weekend and I'm sure mom will love to chaperone for us. Anything to keep me from getting knocked up in someone's back seat."

Terri just tried to make herself less noticeable in her chair, eating as fast as she could. Plans were being made all around her that she wanted nothing to do with.

The bell could not have come soon enough for Terri's taste as she suddenly scrambled off, leaving the girls to themselves.

"Thanks everyone. I think she won't be so irritable for the rest of the day. Nothing like a little fear to change one's attitude." Cindy mused.

"So we aren't really doing it?" asked another. "All of that was just a lie?"

"Nonsense. It's Friday night, right after practice. Oh, and I'm sure we're all aware that Terri doesn't have much in the way of a wardrobe either, at least I don't think so. It's not because she's a penny pincher. So instead of a full shopping trip, could everyone look through their closets and find some things they can part with? I also noticed she likes wearing stuff without branding, and bright colors, like blue and yellow and green, at least when it came to tops. Denim jeans are all I think she ever wore before, so if you bring a skirt, go black or denim, it might be the only way to get her to try them on even."

Everyone nodded in agreement and then went off down the hall in a hurry to make it to their next class.

---

"All of them know Ally. Every single one! The weird part of this is that none of them are freaked out by it." said Terri, as the two of them walked home.

"Damn, are you sure no one else at school knows?" asked Allyssa.

"No, I’m not. But I never saw anyone running around screaming 'Terri is a freak' either, did you?"

"Can't say that I did. So what are they doing about it?"

"Sleepover and Shopping. I've been assimilated into their collective." replied Terri, a hint of disgust on her face.

"Are you okay with that?"

"I suppose..."

"You suppose? Did you just hear yourself just now?" Allyssa remarked.

"Yes I did. I know they wouldn't on purpose do anything to harm me, and even if they did, I've got magic on my side."

"Yeah, there is that. What would you use on them?"

"Nothing, but just the threat of knowing it was there would likely keep me in control. Besides, it feels like every time I turn around, someone else is planning out my life and I'm just along for the ride. Because of my Gran, it’s ‘Terri, now you’re on the cheer squad.’"

"And you're okay with that?" Allyssa asked.

"I'm just tired of fighting it." Terri replied, her arms crossed in front of her chest. "I realize I can't return to obscurity like I was before, so I decided that I might as well try to enjoy it rather than fighting back."

"So very enlightened of you. Does that mean I can tell you that I envisioned you babysitting my little brother next week for me, and you'll believe me and do it?"

"Yeah, sure. Why not? If I can get him over the 'Eww, a girl' complex, I'm sure I could beat him at video games. Will I get paid for it?"

"Certainly! I wouldn't torture you like that without compensation. Oh, but he is not a user, so no magic or talking magic around him."

"Remind me of that just before you leave me alone with him. I'll forget before then."

"Gotcha! So, what's the plan for tonight?"

"I’ve got magic lessons. I’ll have to tell them that tomorrow night has been booked."

"Does your mother approve your going?"

"Oh hell, she's just happy to see me with any friends at all! I doubt that she'd say no. In fact, if one of them made it to the house already and asked for me, she'd be digging out a suitcase to put my clothes into."

"You think?"

"I know. Cindy's car just left the driveway. I learned how to put down alert spells on castle walls, moats and stuff. I figured it would make an interesting alarm for the house."

"Nice. And you know your mom is getting you packed for the same reason?"

"No, but Cindy left happy, which means she likely got her way. I know mom enough not to need to see inside the house to know what might come next."

Allyssa nodded in understanding, but said nothing. Nearly a minute had passed before Terri spoke up.

"Ally. I've been thinking."

"About what?"

"Remember Monday when you told me that you had been shielded from the charm spell. You didn't know the charm was coming did you?"

Allyssa shook her head. "Jen, Sam and I were actually casting a spell. My precognitive ability had been going nuts on me, and we had thrown up a few shields in order to drown out the outside stimuli that might be causing the visions. We were in the middle of a shared spell to block my visions as they were getting worse, but we had left the shields up anyway. That’s when the charm hit and tore through the shields like they were saran wrap. But the damage to the charm was done and we only got a glimpse of you. That is why we knew."

"What visions were they?"

Allyssa stopped, looking at the concrete for a moment. "They... Damn! I can't even remember anything about them now!"

"Strange. Almost convenient." mused Terri, continuing to walk.

"Are you saying that’s your Gram?"

"Yes, I am. I think she caused those events to happen because she wanted to steer us together towards a certain direction."

"She is playing us both like puppets?" Allyssa smirked. "I wish I could have met her. I know that she was good. But why Terri? You have any idea why?"

"I didn't until last night. I have a feeling..."

"Of what?"

"Sam and I are in Chemistry together. And my teacher insisted on setting lab partners. Do you think Sam would have...?”

"By the goddess! Yes!" Allyssa cried out. "The seals! She would have felt them on you the moment she touched you. We would have looked you over and wondered what was being sealed up!"

"And you would have broke them?" Terri asked quietly.

Allyssa nodded. "Tried to probably. And without consulting the council first. I get it now, do you?"

"I think... " Terri took a deep breath and sighed before continuing. "I think I'm going to die."

Allyssa grabbed her arm. "Ever since I found out you were a vortex, I've been thinking the same thing. But with all her meddling, why would she put this much effort into all of this if you were just going to die anyway. No, your Grandmother is trying to keep you alive. Don't you see?"

"No, I don't."

"Just sealing you up wouldn't be enough, especially if we found them and broke them. You'd be just another vortex to us. By forcing us to deal with you as a person BEFORE we knew the extent of your abilities, she made us see you as a human to US!"

"So what?"

"We would be more inclined to find a way to keep you alive! Look at how much Augustine beats up on herself for killing the last vortex! And she never knew him. Now the new vortex is you, her best friend's only grandchild. You are suffering from a serious spell trap that you and ten other users couldn't undo easily. She'll do everything she can to keep you alive now."

"So, making me female was Grandma's idea of a signal flare?"

Allyssa looked at Terri. "Yeah. I don't know why she decided you needed to get mentally unhinged for this, but becoming a different gender certainly got my attention, and thus the rest of the council."

"Yeah, party for me. Woohoo! Imbalance!"

"Well, it's not like the spell made you into some sort of freak. Having tits isn't the end of the world you know. She made you into something you kind of wanted to be in the first place." Allyssa commented. "If you stop thinking about it too much, it's not so bad is it?"

"You're right. I came to that same thought earlier. Grandma fulfilled a fantasy for me, and I’ve been too stupid, angry and upset to notice."

"So, from now on, it's girl power all the way? You're going to this sleepover and try to enjoy yourself? You're going to laugh, cry and have fun with us being the way you are?"

"Until the day I die from being crushed in by a building."

"That's the spirit!! But forget that building part." chimed Allyssa. "You’re NOT going to die! I promise you that!"

---

Synopsis: Cindy and Allyssa are convinced Terri doesn't need to be so depressed at her situation. They begin trying to change her attitude and self image. They want her open up a bit more.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter Seven
Letting Go and Hanging On.

---

Cindy pulled up in front of Terri's house about six-thirty Friday morning, an hour and a half before school was to start.

Terri's mother had been awaiting her and let her in and told her how to get to Terri's room, located on the highest floor in the building.

As Cindy approached the stairs, she saw a little girl playing with a large pile of LEGOs in what was a parlor room off to the side of the hallway. The girl looked up and smiled, before returning to whatever she happened to be building.

Cindy climbed the stairs and opened the door, which wasn't locked and peaked in to see Terri lying curled up in a fetal ball amidst a tangle of bedcovers, her hair matted and sweaty.

As she approached the bed, Cindy looked Terri over. Terri was turned away from her, shivering and whimpering softly. She thought to herself that Terri was having a nightmare, and she gently put a hand on the sleeping girl's shoulder.

Terri awoke with a start, gasping for air and screeching. She looked about to her surroundings then sat up in her bed, peeling her hair from the damp pillow, and looked right up at Cindy.

"What... Are... You... Doing?"

"I'm sorry if I woke you, but you looked like you were having a bad dream."

"I was." was Terri's short reply as she regained her composure.

Cindy was about to continue further, when she noticed Terri's hair simply dried out and fell into place on her head as if she had just taken a shower and then spent an hour styling it.

Terri yawned and climbed out of bed. She padded over to her mirror and rubbed her eyes, only then noticing Cindy staring at her in the mirror, her mouth agape. "What?" she asked.

"I so totally hate you," responded Cindy. "I wish I could do magic and just fix my hair in seconds like that."

"Oh that? That wasn't me." Terri commented.

"Liar!" Cindy snapped back.

"Seriously I didn't do that. It's a neat trick, but it seems to be part of the spell that transformed me into this. I can step out of the shower and my hair is dry and ready before my other foot hits the tile."

"You're not helping."

"I'm sorry Cindy, but I promise if I figure out how to cast it, I'll share it with you."

"I'm just giving you grief, okay? You don't need to do anything on my account."

"Then why are you here, if not to bother me about my magical personal grooming habits?" Terri asked.

"I did some thinking last night." Cindy began.

"That statement never fails to scare me coming from you." Terri interrupted.

"Anyway. I was wondering, what would have happened if the spell that brainwashed me and everyone else, had effected you as well?"

"You mean...?"

"Yeah, what if you also had been made to believe you had always been female." Cindy asked.

"Good thing the spell wasn't meant to do that." Terri replied.

"But what if it had?" Cindy empathized.

Terri thought about it for a moment before answering. "I think I'd be in hell."

"It couldn't possibly be so bad. I mean, you would have..."

"I would be in hell. If the spell on me was as bad as the one on everyone else, then I'd be fraught with feelings of something wrong about once every, what... ten seconds? That would be worse than this. At least I have my mind now. I can deal with this body. "

"Ok, but what if the spell had gone off perfectly?" Cindy conjectured. "What if it had been able to replace all those memories that people had?"

"So we are playing the 'Ultimate What If' game here huh?" Terri remarked sarcastically. "I'll tell you what would have happened. I would have likely gone out shopping for shoes and not spent the weekend in hysterics. The vomiting until my throat was sore from dry heaves, and the cursing out random deities made for a fabulous experience."

"You need to stop fixating on that." Cindy replied. "It's not healthy. That isn't what I was referring to. What I was trying to get at is, that you'd be HAPPY!"

"You mean I'm not?" Terri asked.

"Plah-leez. You are starting your own new cult. Beautiful girls who are Emo but don't look it."

"What's an Emo? I thought it was pronounced emu with a U." Terri commented.

"No, I'm not talking about the strange African bird. Emo is short for emotional, but a better term for it is immature self-destructive depressive.
You make other people feel bad just being in close proximity, and I do know what the word proximity means, for your Information."

Terri tried to ignore her, as she looked herself over in her mirror. She pretended to brush out wrinkles in the symboite suit, which was wrinkle free to begin with. "I'm never going to live down the prattling comment." she said.

"This is what I figured out last night. You are too worried about what people think of you, even now. This new unwanted popularity has you scared, I think you're scared that everyone is going to figure you out and beat on you."

Terri stopped what she was doing and turned to face Cindy. She stood there staring for several seconds before replying. "So you got it. You want a prize?"

"No, I don't. I wanted to tell you that you aren't the only one to feel that way."

"What are you talking about?"

"You have your secret and I have mine."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm gay, or did you forget?"

"Oh that. I guess I had nearly forgotten."

"Exactly. That is how you should feel about yours too. Look, when I first realized it, I was scared about how people would react. I worried endlessly for days, and I was sick about it. But I worked up the nerve, told my best friends and they were there for me. They made me feel comfortable and welcome."

"I don't think this can compare."

"The only difference between yours and mine is that there is magic involved. Augustine told me that she would erase minds at the school, including mine if I helped break the charm on everyone. I am sure there is a way to do a quick fix on anyone who you wouldn't want to know."

"I was kind of hoping no one would."

"That isn't possible. You weren't going to make it through this alone."

"How would you know?"

"Because I can see it eating away at you. Everyone on the squad can see it, and all of us can't let you put yourself through this kind of pain."

"You did before, when I was still Male and still a freak!"

"And every one of us regrets every moment, I promise. We know there is no way to undo the past, so we have to make amends now. We all want to help you to stop worrying and start living. I heard what you said at the table yesterday. You just planned on existing, cause you said being a girl was still suffering. That's not good enough.

I'm here to make this day the most pleasant you've had and help you so it will continue tomorrow, and the day after and the every day after that. All day we're going to be there for you, and not a minute will you have to go by when you'll feel alone. There will be no more suffering."

"The sleepover starts as soon as school is out tonight. We're planning on making it a worry free weekend, if that's possible for you."

Terri just stared at her. Cindy could see the emotional exhaustion in the other girl's eyes. There were no words that exchanged between them for several moments.

Cindy was finally tired of waiting for some snarky response when she realized Terri had surrendered and was simply waiting for whatever Cindy had planned to inflict upon her.

Cindy motioned her over, and put her arms around her again. "This doesn't hurt anymore, does it?"

"No, it doesn't hurt." Terri replied.

"You've spent so many years afraid to touch people, you forgot how good it used to feel."

Terri failed to respond. She was standing there with her eyes closed.

"You can cry if you want." Cindy whispered softly. "It will make you feel better getting it all out.

Terri sighed. "My tears dried up several days ago. Crying did me no good then. Why should it now?"

"That's the spirit. Stop mourning the loss of that penis you probably never used, and start thinking of all the fun ways you can show off your boobs!" Cindy chimed, as she pulled away and motioned to Terri's chest with her hands.

"Thank you for the vote of confidence." Terri scowled. "Never used huh?"

"You weren't a virgin, I mean, with someone else?" Cindy quipped back. "Seriously?"

Terri hung her head. "No, but if I had my dick right now it would have shriveled up..."

"...If you had your dick right now, you would look like one of those weird and nasty 'Futa' girls from the Japanese porn comics."

"Ew, stop putting ugly visions into my head." Terri said with a sneer.

"Sorry, but we are getting off track here. Back to the focus, and my reason for coming. Do you think, for one day, you can stop worrying about what you have become and just focus on who you are? In other words, will you try to come out of your shell that you spent so long building? You don't have to fear being touched anymore, so you can start making friends. The spell gave you a hand up there, didn't it?"

"Be serious." Allyssa commented as she strolled into the room. "I'm not Terri's friend. I was just someone who had something she wanted, the counter spell. Now that she knows I don't have one, I'm just a useless person."

"You never said you wanted to be my friend either. You just seemed to want to use Me." retorted Terri. "I went along with your ideas cause I didn't have anyone else to turn to! You said you'd help me, and it was the only hope I had! Now I'm stuck being a cheerleader and it's all your fault!"

Allyssa stopped smiling. She knew she had hit a nerve, and not in the way she had intended.

Cindy too felt the room chill suddenly as the glow in Terri's eyes assumed their reddish flare.

"Your stupid precognitive powers didn't see that coming could you? You didn't see me having to wear that stupid skirt every few days for the rest of the year, now did you?!"

Allyssa closed her eyes and lowered her head. "I'm sorry Terri. I didn't think about that, or what it might have meant. I didn't mean to use you like that, I just could not stop thinking about what I had seen in my vision."

It was Terri's turn to close her eyes. Allyssa looked up face the girl's gaze, but found them hidden. After a few seconds however, a smile crept across Terri's lips.

She opened her eyes again to reveal the deep pools of blue that signaled that Terri had lost the anger.

"You're forgiven. I have been wondering if you had meant to humiliate me. I have my answer now, and I wonder if it means that you care?"

"Of course I care Terri." Allyssa said. "I care, because from the moment you cried into my arms on the bleachers, I have considered you my friend. You needed someone that night and I stayed out there with you, to calm you down so you could function as close to normal as possible. I've come over here every morning and walked with you to school, so you wouldn't feel alone. You are important to me, and not because you're a user, but because you couldn't face this by yourself."

"That's the same reason I'm here, so you don't have to feel alone."

"I get it alright. Sheesh, all this time and suddenly people think it's bad for me to be all by myself. I'm so grateful for the attention." Terri snipped sarcastically.

"Allyssa, isn't there some kind of spell you can put on her?"

"Tons, but I won't."

"Why not?"

"Spells that try to change people's minds only force a personality out for awhile, leaving them feel helpless and no longer in control. When it wears off, they are usually always mad at the caster. You've seen Terri mad, I don't want that directed at me."

"Enough, you two talk like I'm not here. I'll try to be more of a people person, okay? Even if just for today."

For her outburst, Terri was rewarded by another hug from Cindy, though from behind this time.

---

Now dressed, Terri exited her room, locking the door behind her and turned to join Allyssa and Cindy who were already a few steps down the stairs.

"Oh, I didn't know you had a sister." Allyssa said. "How has she been treating you?"

"Uhm, I don't have a sister." replied Terri.

"Then who's the little girl downstairs?" asked Cindy.

"Oh, you must mean Lexi. She's the daughter of one of Mom's good friends. Mom watches her a few days each week while I'm at school."

"Wow, and I could have sworn that you two were sisters." Allyssa responded. "She does bear a striking resemblance."

Cindy nodded. "I thought the same thing."

"Well, you two would be the very first to think we looked like sisters."

"Really?" Cindy asked.

"She's trying to pull one on you Cindy. You forget that Terri looked quite different last week."

Cindy smirked. "Oh yeah, good one Terri. You had me there."

As they reached the ground floor landing, Lexi looked up toward the three of them. "Good morning."

"Morning Lexi. Where's Mom?"

"In the kitchen, making enough breakfast for you and your friends."

"She doesn't have to do that." said Cindy.

"Irregardless of your wishes, that's what she's doing." Lexi commented idly, while turning her visual attention to her Lego blocks, which looked like an unfinished version of the Empire State Building. She had completed the main base of the structure and was now deciding on the color for the vertical shaft.

"You know, just ten minutes ago, that was just a pile of bricks."

"I'm used to it." replied Terri. "Lexi is a gifted kid. I'm sure she'll be ruining the grading curve for everyone else. She was reading before she could walk, and last week it was a repair manual for a Audi..."

Terri was interrupted with, "It was for a Volvo Eight-Fifty." Lexi stated.

"Written in German." added Terri.

"Swedish actually." corrected Lexi.

"Whatever. You’re just a little miss know-it-all today, aren’t you?" Terri snipped.

"Ok, stop it you two." called Terri's mother from the kitchen. "It's time for breakfast."

"Yes Momma." Terri muttered softly.

She trudged into the kitchen, with Allyssa and Cindy in tow.

Terri flopped into a chair on the center island, so she would be close to the skillet surface her mother was working on.

"So good to see your friends for a change Terri. I hope you all have time for breakfast, and you've brought healthy appetites." she said, as she flipped a couple of pancakes over.

"Do we have time?" asked Cindy.

"Well, you have a car, you could drive us all there quickly." Allyssa replied.

"Sweet, those do look good."

Cindy took a seat next to Terri and Allyssa took the next in the line, which also happened to be the end.

"Okay, how would you like your eggs?" Terri's mother asked.

At this time Cathy, one of the boarders, came into the room.
"Terri, can I speak with you a second?"

Terri slouched forward, and then dejectedly followed Cathy into the next room.

---

"So, I hear you are not going to be training with us tonight?" Cathy asked, as she turned around to face the girl.

Terri nodded. "I'm being hauled to a sleepover for the cheer squad. It's being held for me."

"You know, we're not going to be here forever, and you have blown us off the last two nights, and now tonight."

"I promise that I won't ditch on you anymore. Cross my heart."

"Very well. On another subject, I wonder if you know where that little girl, Lexi, lives. We have reason to believe that she may also be a user, though she is not aware of it. Martha swears that the girl has been seamlessly moving through the ley-lines, a possible sign of magically inclined."

"Ley-lines?" Terri asked.

"Lines of mana that cross the earth, the source of our power. A normal human breaks the lines as they encounter them, the lines repair unharmed. A user passes through the stream without breaking it, and you, well you cause all nearby streams to pull inward toward yourself. That is what a vortex does."

"Ahh, gotcha. Well, I honestly don't know where she lives. I have never seen her mom, or her showing up or leaving. She's just here some mornings when I leave for school and she's gone before I return."

"I see." Cathy said. "I guess we'll wait for her mother this afternoon, and follow them home."

"I am sorry I can’t be of more help. I’d tell you to ask Mom, but then she might wonder why you want to know." said Terri. "Is there anything else?"

"Your plate is filling up, you best get back to it before it gets cold." Said Cathy. "If you’re like me, you’d hate cold eggs."

---

The day had not gotten off to a good start, but classes did not appear much better, at least at first.

Terri had not noticed before, but every class period she had, she shared with at least one member of the squad. This was brought to her attention when, before the beginning of each period, she found herself the recipient of one or more hugs.

She dreaded each contact moments before it occurred, but afterward found herself wanting it and nearly wishing it hadn't ended so quickly. Her general mood was noticeable by everyone in the room, so while many sets of eyes were focused on her, she wasn't noticing so much. She was sitting there, a state of being that she had not shown before.

Before third period, half of the senior class knew about the displays of friendship, and despite some rumor about it being something deviant and sexual, most took it as a sign that Terri was troubled by the attempted rape days before.

As a result, most of the girls in Terri's third period class stood in line to put arms around her or offer her words of encouragement. Since most feared even saying the word rape would cause her undo pain, their comments only served to act much like horoscopes. A collection of generalized and full of open-ended statements that could be taken for any number of things, including a sudden gender and popularity change gave her a strangely mixed yet comforting message.

The lunch period, which for Terri was in the fifth of the day, came quickly for her. She strolled into the cafeteria with an air of confidence. She surveyed the room, her gaze fell upon her old lunch table, whom she had given up to the group of people already sitting there waiting for her.

She calmly navigated the twists of tables, and took up her chair, much to the delight of the group there. She recognized each of their faces now, but she could not place them into any one group. They seemed ecstatic as she sat down but did not say a single word.

She pulled a simple paper sack from her bag, and removed a sandwich. She unwrapped it and began eating. Her eyes continued to dart from one person to another as she ate, not saying a word, or making much more noise than chewing.

One sandwich gone and no one else had said anything at all. She reached into her sack again, which had looked and acted empty after she removed the sandwich the first time, but this time she removed a bottle of sweetened lemon Tea. She said nothing, but uncapped the bottle, took a long drink, and set the remaining half the bottle in front of her, recapping the lid.

The entire time she had said nothing, simply watched to see if these people would say a thing, but much to her surprise, they had not started a conversation either.

She folded up her paper sack, picked up her bottle of tea, then her backpack and calmly strolled away finishing it off in time to sit down with the cheer squad, much to the surprise of the people she left behind.

"Those are Klingons?" she asked Cindy. "Not the star Trek kind, but the poop stuck to the hairs on the crack of your ASS, Klingons."

"They are like mindless zombies, but without the drawling ‘Brains’ over and over." replied Cindy. "Without you as their leader, they’ll drift back into someone else’s group, but not ours. They will never be cheerleader material. They could never pass the tryouts."

"That never stopped me." said Terri.

"Only cause you didn't TRY." replied Cindy. "I'm sure had you been feeling better, you could have."

"I shudder to think of how much 'Better' I would have needed to be to achieve that."

"Truthfully, I doubt you ever will. I'm just hoping we can get you to smile a few times this weekend."

"That will depends on this weekend I guess. I'm hoping some sort of miracle happens."

"I'm not hoping for miracles," said Cindy. "I'm planning for them. I know you are going to enjoy this weekend so much, you'll be sitting here with us at lunch the rest of the year."

"That or a building will fall and crush me." Terri mumbled softly to herself.

---

Synopsis: Terri begins to learn more about herself through a dream and discovers that her responsibility to herself extends past her hygiene.
 
 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter Eight
Dreams And Growing Up.

---

 
Terri sat at home Friday after school. Cindy had just called and cancelled the sleepover party, much to Terri's relief.

"An important family matter" was the excuse given, but Terri didn't care. Her weekend was suddenly free and she was enjoying it, by lying on her ratty old couch, the voice of Bob Ross once again filling the air with "Happy little trees".

She felt herself drifting off to sleep, the calming soothing voice just letting her go.

She vaguely heard her mother come in, and lightly drape a soft blanket over her. She didn't even register falling asleep.
 

~*~
 
"Is this what we want?" Terri heard herself say, or at least her male voice said.

She looked around, and amidst the blackness that carried itself on forever; her gave fell upon a nude version of herself, lying as if on a table. She felt like she was looking down upon herself.

Its eyes snapped open and focused on her. "Is this what we want?" it asked again, in her male voice despite the body it came from.

"What?" Terri asked this version of herself. "This body? Is this what we want? ANSWER!" it shouted.

"I... I don't know."

She watched her own body bend forward slightly to look down at itself. "Why do we not know?"

"I don't know that either." Terri replied. "I want to hate that body, but I can't."

"That's because it's you, or at least part of you." came another voice from the blackness.

Terri turned to face the voice, but couldn't find the source. She thought she had recognized the voice, but she wasn't sure.

"Who said that?" she called out into the darkness.

She turned back toward her nude form only it wasn't female anymore. It was male, more like what he looked like in the park earlier in the week, but more muscular and defined.

This male form had no strange streaks of missing body hair. The large somewhat diagonal stripe across his chest that had been devoid of hair now looked uniform with the rest of him. His legs also were now uniformly tufted in light brown hair, instead of the barber pole look she remembered.

As Terri stared at this body, she noticed another form, gracefully walking forward out of the darkness behind the male form.

It was another nude female form, but it was not the same as Terri's current body. Its features were highly exaggerated. Larger breasts and an hourglass figure so pronounced, she thought she could might have been able to get her hands around the waist, This was only made worse by hips so wide, her legs did not touch at the crotch. The way she walked looked impossible for a normal human.

"What the hell?"

"Do you not recognize us?" they both said in unison.

"No, I don't"

"That's because we're separate here. We used to be one..."

And with that ominous statement, both bodies seemed to blur and collect together, as if Terri had suddenly gone cross-eyed. She shut her eyes momentarily and when she opened them, she gasped.

Standing before her was her old self. The body she remembered. Just looking at it caused her mind to drift back to all of the pain she had been in. If she could feel her legs at that point, she was sure they would be buckling, but something was holding her upright, forcing her to face the abomination that she had been.

"What are you telling me?" Terri cried out, her eyes threatening to swell with tears.

"Nothing you don't already know." Said the single figure. "We figured this out already, but you're still refusing to believe it."

"You're saying that the reason I was freaky looking, was that Those parts of me were female?" Terri said, as she pointed to the smooth part of his abdomen.

"If that line had been even three inches lower..." interrupted the figure as he gestured to how the line passed just above and nearly bisected the penis. "...Then we would have had to pee sitting down."

It continued to speak, regardless of how what it was saying was affecting Terri.

"The reason we were in pain was that puberty caused our parts to move in different directions. We were tearing ourselves apart."

"But, was I born this way? Do I know? Do WE know?"

The other Terri shook its head. "We do not know."

"But I just saw this skanky version of me. How come I don't look like her now?"

"Because we look like how we imagined ourselves to be if we were to ever be female."

"You mean the spell..."

"Was made to work on our desires, and if we hadn't wanted to be a woman, then we would not have changed."

The figure in front of her blurred again, and she was again staring at her own nude form, a more realistic model of the female form.

"Now, answer us. "Are you still unsure if this is what you want?"

Terri broke down completely. She wailed for a few moments, before looking back up into its eyes.

"I DO want it. It IS what I want, but I didn't want to be forced into it. Why can't I choose when I want to be female?"

As the figure faded out, it smiled. Terri knew that smile well. It was the same one she gave to others, when she wanted to scare them. Just before it disappeared, she saw it speak, and she barely heard the whisper. "The choice
may not be ours to make."

Suddenly, with no point of reference, she felt like she was falling. She looked down to whatever she was falling toward. She could see a pinpoint of light suddenly growing bigger and bigger, until it engulfed her.

Suddenly, she was at school, but it wasn't really her school. The normally straight lines and angles of the hallways were twisted and dark, like some kind of dark funhouse at a fair. She then realized she was naked, holding nothing but a pen and a clipboard.

On the clipboard were hastily drawn two columns, one marked 'BOY' and one marked 'GIRL'. From the number of hash marks marking fives of people, her girl side was coming out ahead by a landslide. 'BOY' had just one vote, and Terri thought it might have been her own.

Just then three girls came by, stopped and looked over her body.

"Can you turn around?"

Terri felt objectified, but compelled to do so.

"Hmm, what do you think ladies? I'm thinking Terri looks much better now."

"Yeah, better give another three votes for 'Girl'. They said, then laughed and continued on."

"What the hell is this?"

"What the hell is what?" came another familiar voice.

Terri looked up and saw a giant version of Lexi looking down at her.
 

~*~
 
Terri realized in that instant, she had just woken up. She was no longer nude in a strange version of her school hallway, but lying peacefully on her ratty couch, fully clothed, looking up at Lexi who was bent forward only enough
to get a better look at her.

"You were having a nightmare." Lexi answered flatly. "I did not want to wake you up, but when you spoke, I thought you were talking to me."

"How come you're still here?"

"My parents are both busy with their jobs tonight, so I am staying here."

"Where are you going to sleep?" Terri asked. "All the guest rooms are filled."

"That's why I'm standing here. You have such a large bed and your mother wondered if you could share it."

Terri looked at the little girl for a minute, but before she could muster a reply, Lexi added. "Your mother and I spent all day cleaning up your room and washing clothes and sheets to butter you up."

"Another crack about my hygiene?"

"Not at all, she was worried that you had not washed your sheets since last weekend when you were sick, and you've been busy lately, so we took it upon ourselves to help you out."

"Still sounds like an insult to me."

"Well, your mother did comment on the lack of dirty underwear. I must ask, are you wearing any now?"

"Actually no. I haven't been wearing any underwear in the last couple of days."

"That is the foulest thing I've heard out of your mouth in years child," came her mother's voice from the hallway as she stepped into the room. "You can't be serious."

Terri's mother looked her daughter over, scolding. "My own daughter, not even with a hint of decency. You flaunt your body in those outfits you've been wearing lately. What if you were to start your period?"

Terri flinched. Yet another of the many realizations of womanhood that she was trying so hard to avoid. "I don't really want to think about that."

Her mother shook her head slightly, but with a smile on her face."Did she say yes, Lexi?"

"Not yet, but I am hopeful."

"Yeah sure, ya brat." Terri said. "Just don't be surprised if I don't sleep too much with you."

"Of course you aren't going to sleep if you take naps in the middle of the day," said Terri's mother. "Are you feeling ill?"

Terri couldn't stop herself from answering, "No more than usual as of late."

Lexi gave Terri a small hug. "Thank you. I won't keep you up all night."

"No, I'll likely keep myself awake most of the night."

"Could I ask you one more favor?" Lexi said, still standing next to the couch. "When I woke you up, I realized you are in need of a shower. I am not making fun of your personal hygiene, just informing you that not only have you have been so stressed out that you are missing sleep, but that you might relax under the hot water."

"Yeah yeah, I get it. I'll go take one quick before dinner."

"You've already missed dinner, sorry."

"Oh, well then I'll just raid the fridge afterward. I'm not really hungry at the moment."

With that, Terri hopped up off the couch ducked past her mother and bounded up the stairs.

Lexi began folding the blanket Terri had been covered up with, when Martha, one of the boarders, stopped in the hallway outside the door.

"Oh, I was wondering if Terri was awake yet. I was hoping she could assist me with something."

"Anything I can do?" asked her mother.

"No, I needed a teenager's opinion mostly. My presentation is geared toward an audience a bit younger than us I'm afraid."

"I know what you mean." Terri's mother mused. "What fun it would be to be back in high school again."
 

~*~
 
Terri grabbed her towel from the hook behind her door, and then stepped into her closet. From there she lifted the notch in the rear panel that allowed it to swing back into the attic.

She stepped out from under her hanging clothes, and straightened up as she closed the hidden secret door. She suddenly shuddered, as this was almost exactly how she got into the mess in the first place.

The previous Friday, at almost the same time, He had used this same entrance to the attic to hopefully go unnoticed as he went looking for some distinctly female clothes to try on for a few brief minutes without being caught.

She slowly made her way down the thin, ragged path between piles of junk until she came to the box and stopped to reflect.

It was her grandmother's steamer trunk, but as many times as he had played in the attic, he never remembered it being there. Opening it the first time one week ago, he had found a soft, silky leotard in sliver. It looked like a polished surface as he had picked it up and quickly disrobed to wear it instead.

Now, this time she looked at the box, and was almost fearful to open it, afraid of what it might hold in store for her this time.

She put her hand on the lid, then lifted it and found the glowing stones, still brightly shining from where she had
charged them.

Monday morning had come as a bittersweet repast from the nightmare that had been the previous weekend. After spending two nights and days torturing herself over having found the spell and using it, she had managed to fall asleep Monday morning soon after midnight and woken much more calm and relaxed.

She knew she could go to school and no one would know the truth, but she had been determined to figure out a way to change back, so she had come back the box, finding spell books under the top layer of clothes, and the stones under that. As soon as she had touched one of the stones it began to glow, and Terri had momentarily lost track of time as she dredged her hand through the box repeatedly, lighting them all up.

She now knew what they were and why they had lit up. Augustine had returned the box from when she had confiscated it on Wednesday night, after informing the dumbstruck fledgling female that she was likely the most powerful magic user on the planet.

Terri looked around and found where she had tossed the rest of the clothes, looking for another spell to change her back, after she had read the first one. There were still marks of the ash left when the scroll burned up in her hand
upon being used.

She looked through them, and realized that none of them, including the silver leotard, were her mother's size. They were all her own, her NEW size. Her mother, even during her parent's supposed performance days, had lacked the figure that she, her daughter, now possessed.

"Damn Grandma. You Are good. If you're watching me right now, I just wanna say I can't tell if I'd rather hug you or smack you."

She shut the lid on the box and made a mental note to pick up the pile of clothes on the way back to her room.

Terri then turned and walked away from the case and on to the attic stairs. Located on the back of the house and sporting an entrance that was also hidden to prevent house guests from wandering up them. Terri regularly used this route to the shower on the second floor since she could go from her room on the third floor unnoticed. She did it, mostly for the thrill of moving through secret passageways, the greatest treasure a young boy could have.

As she got to the door, she lifted the latch rod and cracked the door open, peering down the hall before opening it far enough to slip out and close it behind her.

Terri had to share the guest bathroom, as the third floor had never been intended as a living space and had not been in the plan to be fitted with plumbing pipes when the house was built almost eighty years earlier.

The attic door on the second floor had been hidden when Terri's father had remodeled the home into the bed and breakfast. He had designed a clasp into a flowered trim relief that covered the door panel and the wall around it.

The lines where the door swung open were also not straight. They were hidden mostly behind flower petals and were difficult to spot.

Terri pushed the door shut with one hand, hearing the soft click of the locking clasp, and crossed the hallway into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door.

She sat down on the toilet lid, and untied her shoes, slipping them off and pulling off the ankle socks afterward. Her shirt fell to the floor and her shorts next, leaving only the symbiote suit.

It asked her what she wanted it to do, to just remove itself or simply hide for the duration.

Finding out the suit's definition of "Hide" meant a trip into her womb suddenly shook her up. She opted for the removal, promising it was only for a few minutes. The suit trusted her, and peeled itself off, falling into a pile at her feet.

Feeling air against her skin for the first time in days, she realized how cold and alone she now felt. The suit wasn't just protecting her; it had been gently comforting her and keeping her just a little bit warmer than her environment.

Since she could hear its thoughts and feelings in her mind, it had been actually projecting its happiness into her. Now with the suit off, the truth of its bond and its loyalty was now apparent. She hadn't felt truly alone in days, thanks to its careful, yet persistent pressure. She had been calmer, courageous and had more confidence, allowing her to function better over the last few days. She shuddered to think how off-balance she would have been if Allyssa hadn't given it to her.

Terri bent over, clutched the material and picked it up, holding it against her chest, and was immediately rewarded by emotion akin to a mental purr, that instantly drove out the sad, cold, scared and lonely feeling she now had.

"I can't continue without you anymore, I'm just not strong enough, am I?"

She waited for nearly a minute for a response that she knew wouldn't come. It would never make her feel bad by telling her how much she needed it. She simply continued to reflect warmth and strength toward her. She just knew she didn't want to let go of it again.

"Can you handle water? It won't dissolve you?" Terri asked, looking down at the blob pressed to her chest. After getting the figurative green light from the suit, she stepped into the tub, still clutching it to her chest and pulling the door shut behind her.

Terri started hot water filling the tub, and then lowered herself down into the basin. She idly let go of the symbiote and it flowed like molasses down into her crotch. She didn't notice however, as the warm water quickly filling up the tub began to soothe out her aching muscles and the heels of her feet.

Her eyes had just closed when they flew open again in surprise. She sat up and dove her fingers under the water, grabbing a handful of the symbiote, stretching it to the surface.

"Aaah, what do you.... think you're dooooooINnKK!" Terri pressed past her lips in a hurry.

After a moment of listening to its voice inside her head, she replied, "You have GOT to be ki-ki-kidding."

Her hand let go of the black substance, and she slumped back against the back of the tub. "No, no I want you.... stop, but it does feel.... good."

The water was now approaching the top of the tub, but Terri, her eyes closed once again, reached up and pressed in the fixture with one foot, and then it lazily dropped back into the water.

She was biting her lower lip to keep from making noise, her lower torso writhing about.

One hand snaked itself under the water, finding her nipple. It took only a few moments for her to realize how hard she needed to pinch to achieve the greatest effect.

"Oooh, you are.... pretty good at this." Terri murmured as her skin warmed up enough and a heat rash appeared across her cheeks and forehead.

The sensations brought on by the symbiote massaging her nether lips and clitoris were spreading across her entire body. She could feel her knees buckling and just as she reached orgasm, her face fell below the water.

A few bubbles came to the surface, before she forcefully tore through the surface of the water, splashing, spitting up water, choking, and gasping for air.

After she caught her breath, stopped thrashing around and choking from inhaling a lung full of bathwater, Terri realized the symbiote had let go and was floating in the water, waiting.

She slid her fingers into the slick substance, and then replied to the question posed to her. "No, I'm not mad at you. I had no idea how that felt. It was my fault."

It quickly stopped being worried, and returned to projecting positive thoughts.

"Okay, let's leave the teasing out this time and focus on getting clean."
 

~*~
 
Terri opened the bathroom door, wearing the suit formed as a towel but with socks on her feet. She had dried off and was making her way back to the hidden attic door when Cathryn cleared her throat from behind.

Without turning around Terri replied. "I knew I was being too optimistic to think I could hide from you."

"I heard your weekend retreat got cancelled, thought we could finally get started on your magic lessons tonight."

"Yeah, how convenient. So, what did you do to Cindy to get her to cancel it?"

"What makes you think I was involved?" asked Cathryn.

"I know better than to consider this a coincidence." replied Terri.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, a couple of us just talked to her and explained calmly how it was in your best interest..."

"... And yours too, or so you think."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cathryn demanded.

"Hey, what's that behind you?" Terri suddenly changed the topic.

"What..." asked Cathryn, turning to find nothing behind her, and then turning back to find Terri was gone as well.
 

~*~
 
Terri rushed up the attic steps, nimbly dodging past piles of stuff, all the while the symbiote was reconstructing itself into the usual bodysuit and boots.

As she passed through her closet into her room, she stood up, only to find Cathryn, Martha and the rest of her boarder teachers standing across the room, looking at her with arms crossed.

"You really thought you could run?"

"There went my optimism again. I need to really stop taking its advice." Terri replied, as she strolled over to the bed, slipping on a t-shirt over the suit.

"We insist that we began your training tonight." said Cathryn.

Terri turned, flopped down into her desk chair, leaned back and laid one leg over her knee. "You just don't get it do you?"

"Are you implying that we are idiots?"

"Only if you think teaching spells to someone you eventually will have to fight, possibly for your lives, is a good idea, then Yes, I might be calling you idiots."

"What are you trying to say?" asked Martha, in a slightly calmer tone than Cathryn. "You don't think that your
Grandmother wanted us to teach you magic."

"Exactly," said Terri. "She didn't do this to me because it would be a good gag. She didn't seal up a vortex just to break it for no reason. Allyssa was right. Everything she has done has been to help keep me alive. As soon as Allyssa pointed this out, I realized that if I learned how to make shields and throw fireballs and magic missiles and stuff, I would be just as dangerous as the last one."

"Then why are we here?" asked Cathryn.

"Possibly so we could use her consent as a weapon." interrupted Martha.

She looked at Terri. "Terri, you have a valid point. May I suggest a few spells we could cast upon you that would be beneficial if you grandmother foresaw and is attempting to prevent a repeat of the death of the last vortex."

"Such as?"

"Mana sinks, one for each us and able to be activated during the battle."

"Would it drain me of mana completely? Make me worthless?"

"Unlikely, but it would make each of us more effective, and it would slow your own regeneration. Coupled with not knowing any offensive magic, we could likely defeat you easily and manage to keep you alive."

"It's a start. I seriously do not want to end up like the wicked witch of the east."

"You haven't had any urges to buy red Mary Janes and striped stockings?"

"Very Funny." scowled Terri, with a smile on her face.

---

 
To Be Continued...

Synopsis: Terri gets to spend a little time with Lexi, in an attempt to figure her out. Lexi has the same idea. Allyssa and Cindy are just trying to keep tabs on her.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter Nine
Perceptions

---

There was a knocking Terri's door, and she stood up from her computer and strolled over to answer it. She paused a moment to look around the room before turning the knob.

It had been an hour since her grandmother's friends had left after the confrontation, which let them into the possibility that Terri wasn't the only one having been pushed down a path.

Terri slowly pulled the door open, letting the darkness from the third floor hallway shroud the small girl standing on the opposite side.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting about the light in there."

"Why don't you replace it? You are tall enough."

"Cause hearing everyone stub their toes on that loose board on the top step is my way of getting someone to either fix it, or avoid my room."

"Plus it means that you can hear people coming, either from the cursing or by the resounding thump."

"Exactly."

Lexi stepped inside, toting a small bag. She carried it over to the corner on the far side of the bed.

"You going to bed already? It's a quarter after seven!"

"I think you forget that I'm only four years old.

Terri, who was now back at her computer, replied, "Yeah, well you speak like an adult, and far more personable than Stewie from Family guy."

"I get that quite often, though I hate being compared to that evil little thing. Frankly, if I had been trying for third-world despotism at his age, I wouldn't have gone about yapping my plans, especially if the dog could rat me out to the feds."

"...And more sensible too. I was thinking the same thing."

Thinking back toward the conversation that morning with Cathryn, Terri idly decided to pose Lexi a question. "Hey, do you believe in magic?"

"Magic? Where did this come from?"

"Oh, you wouldn't really believe me."

"No, go ahead and tell me."

"Magic is real, it exists." said Terri as she turned to face Lexi. "And I am proof of it."

Lexi looked at her for a few seconds before replying. "You don't say."

"Yeah. I best not say more."

"About what time will you be coming to bed, oh grand sorceress?"

"Not sure really. I haven't slept since Wednesday night, other than my nap."

"Well, do you care which side?"

"No, just take the side you're on. I'll slip into bed later."

"Goodnight then."

"Goodnight." replied Terri, as she returned to the screen, intent on beating her game.

---

Terri was still working at the game several hours later when she heard a mumble from behind her.

She had turned off the sound and was barely making any noise, so she turned to see if she had woken Lexi up.

She found the little girl curled up under the covers. As Terri leaned in closer she swore she heard the words "Momma, please."

Terri pointed to her machine, and it suddenly jumped through the motions of shutting down without any movement of the mouse or depresses of the keyboard. Its fans halted their steady whine for the night and Terri pulled off her shirt and kissed the arm of her suit, losing the molded boots and letting the bottom of the legs slide up to halfway down her thighs. The suit became a heather gray color once again and she lifted the covers and slipped into bed.

As soon as she touched Lexi, the girl visibly changed. Her muscles loosened and she let go of her fetal position. Terri felt a connection to Lexi that she couldn't describe. There was something inside her telling her to comfort this little girl.

Lexi never woke, but as soon as Terri finished fidgeting about and settled down, Lexi snuggled in closer, never waking up.

Terri found herself following the smaller girl's lead into dreamland and soon they both were out like a light.

---

Lexi woke up lazily, her eyes adjusting to the light streaming in through the window, whose curtains weren't closed all the way.

She saw the arm lying over top of her and looking at it, she said "Momma?" out loud.

Then she realized where she was and shook her head to get the cobwebs out.

She looked at the clock on the nightstand; it was after eight in the morning. Good thing it was Saturday and Terri didn't have school.

She rolled over and decided the best way to wake Terri was to grab her nose and squeeze it for a second, until a smile appeared on Terri's face and Lexi was not prepared to be attacked under her arms by a tickler who had been awake for almost an hour and already planning and plotting with a fully alert mind.

Terri found herself in full control of the situation and laughing along the way, as Lexi could not contain herself.

Lexi begged for forgiveness and Terri relented, leaving Lexi to catch her breath on the bed, while she stepped into her closet, closed the door and changed the suit back into the same form it had the night before. This time she added a royal blue stripe down the outside and down the sleeves too. She continued the sleeves into fingerless gloves with metal studs along the knuckles and more studs forming around wristbands.

She let the suit also form an outer shirt, with a plunging V-neck. Then it set to work on denim shorts.

In the span of less than a minute she was fully clothed and ready.

There was a knock at the closet door. "Okay, I've changed clothes, you can come out now."

Terri chuckled and exited the closet. "So what's on your agenda today?"

"I don't know, but it looks like you were about to head out to a motorcycle bar."

"What do you know about biker bars?"

"Half-deaf, nearly fully overweight men in enough black leather to outfit four fetish clubs for nearly a year, or did I miss something?"

"Half-deaf?"

"Harley Davidson motorcycles are known for their use of straight exhaust pipes, which usually contain little to no mufflers. The sound is distinct, and quite loud."

"Reading more auto manuals?"

"Only for understanding, that is to understand why engines are less than forty-percent efficient when they could easily be eighty or ninety."

"I suppose you'll have to ask the oil companies."

"Likely." Lexi added, as she refolded her pajama pants for the third time and finally approving of the job, packed them back into her small bag. Terri, meanwhile, stepped back into her closet to mimic taking the gloves and wristbands off; when in fact she just kissed them away back into the suit.

"Sooo..." Terri asked again as she stepped out a second time. "You want to go to the park after breakfast?"

Lexi suddenly looked up, turned toward Terri. A moment of emotion washed over Lexi's face, but not long enough for Terri to read it.

"That sounds like fun."

Terri took the smaller girl's hand and they left her room and descended the stairs together.

---

Terri and Lexi were swinging on the park's overly large A-frame, part of an even larger jungle gym that encompassed much of the north end of the park only blocks from Terri's home.

Lexi was on the swing next to her and Terri swore to herself she had never, apart from the tickling earlier, seen Lexi smile, much less laugh.

Terri was doing her best not to show the shock and surprise, maintaining a reckless rocking that threatened to put her airborne.

Terri had imagined a girl, so mentally an adult at her age, found little entertainment in such childish of pursuits. She thought Lexi spent much of her time reviewing Television shows for artistic content, rather than play on the swings.

Terri decided to hop off in midair at the apex of her forward swing and was greeted by the amazing feeling of falling, if only for a few seconds, before her feet introduced themselves to the grassy hill outside the sand that comprised the ground of the playground, and she crumpled under the inertia of falling.

She rolled, flailing out onto her back with arms and legs outstretched. Lexi was quickly by her side. "Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, I do that all the time. Need to strengthen my legs though. I normally walk away from that."

"You could have hurt yourself."

"Join me in the grass Lexi, I'm fine. I'm sorry I turned you back into a stuffy adult. You were having a great time just being a kid there."

Lexi blushed, and laid down in the grass next to Terri, their heads only inches away.

"Now look up and tell me what you see?"

"Clouds."

"Yeah but what to they look like?"

"Clouds. Small Alto-Cumulus, judging by size and estimating their altitude."

"You are completely missing the point,” laughed Terri. "I don't need to know what kind of clouds. I was referring to their shape and if they even Vaguely resemble an animal or something. Like that one looks like a bowl filled with scoops of ice cream."

"That one reminds me of the Torque curve sprocket on a gearless transmission."

"Okay... sure. Even though I don't know what one of those things look like, that's good. You're are doing it."

"Doing what?"

"Being a kid. Did you grow up as soon as you could speak?”

"Soon after actually."

"And how did your parents take it?"

"It frustrated father, but mother approves."

"She wants you to give up your childhood and go straight into the quantum engineering?"

"You wouldn't really understand."

"You're probably right. If I ever meet your mom though, remind me to hate her."

"Hate her?"

"C’mon, enough lying about and talking about sourpuss parents, lets try to enjoy the rest of the day. No talking about being an adult. You aren't one, no matter how hard you think, and I'd rather not be one, despite this being my last year in high school."

Lexi got up and followed Terri back toward the jungle gym.

The next several hours were spent running about the structure with other kids, playing in the giant sandbox and generally behaving as if Terri was just another child, though a taller one.

Terri was currently trying to catch Lexi, who was keeping a large piece of the play structure between them, when a woman sitting on bench called her over by name.

Terri, complete with surprised look, wandered over to the bench.

"Can I help you?" she asked. "How did you know my name?

"I heard it as you two were raising a ruckus. I was wondering where you got all of that energy. You have been keeping up with those kids since I got here and I was curious to what energy drink you use."

Terri looked down, blushed and hid her hands behind her back. "Oh, I'm still just a kid myself." she lied, having come to the conclusion that the same reason the vortex kept her from needing much sleep, also provided her plenty of energy. "I got a healthy dose of maple syrup on waffles this morning, that might have helped."

"I'll say. Even Jacob over there can't keep up with you. I have to say though, I haven't seen you or your daughter here before."

"M-m-m-My daughter?" Terri croaked out. "She's..."

But Lexi, who had realized Terri was no longer chasing her, interrupted Terri. "Momma, why'd you stop?"

Terri blushed again. "Lexi, what are you doing?"

"You look so young dear. It was a high school fling wasn't it?"

Terri realized she needed to lie. "Yeah, something like that. I'm so embarrassed right now."

"Don't be Hun." replied the woman, who was in her late thirties. "I wish I could still look that good after having Jacob. All your energy, I can see how you can stay in such good shape."

Terri blushed yet again; never having fully recovered from the last time, so the effect was a darker red than before.

"Momma, can we get ice cream?" Lexi asked, her voice sounding less professional and polish than usual.

"Well, I see duty calls. Hope to see you two again." the woman said as Terri took Lexi's hand.

"Yeah..." Terri replied as she strolled off toward the edge of the park.

Ass soon as they were far enough away, Terri asked, "Why did you call me mommy back there?"

"Because I heard the that woman say she thought you were my mother." Lexi responded. "What better explanation is there? We do look similar enough."

"Yeah, about explanations," said Terri. "I have something I need ask you, but not right now. After we get some Ice cream."

"Yay." Lexi mused, in a low monotone, despite the tiny smirk on her face.

---

Terri was taking her time with a strawberry shake while staring at Lexi on the other side of the bench who was methodically attacking a soft-serve banana split.

Terri's lips parted from the straw and she set it down, looking for a seemingly 'right' moment. Finally she couldn't wait.

"So, gotten any headaches lately?"

"Only from the Ice Cream." replied Lexi.

Terri took another drink off her shake, and then put it down so she could stare at Lexi for a moment more.

"Uhm, Lexi. Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead." Lexi responded.

"Do you notice anything different about me?"

Lexi looked up from her sundae, a very serious look upon her face. She returned to her dessert without a comment however.

"At a loss of what to say?" asked Terri.

Lexi stopped mid-bite, drove her spoon into the top of mound of ice cream. Looking up she bore into Terri's eyes. "What could I possibly say? 'Oh Hey, you look great with breasts. Can I get the name of your body sculptor?' Seriously how did you know?" Lexi asked.

"I was wanting to ask the same thing. You are supposed to be crippled by headaches every time you think back to what I looked like last week or earlier."

Lexi smiled. "Well, that headache thing is no match for my brilliance and willpower. I simply mathematically proved that you didn't even exist in the first place and the headache vanished."

"Seriously?"

"No, not really." Lexi replied with a grin. "I heard something like that once on a television program. I simply had more willpower than it and killed it."

"Then why have you been playing along?" asked Terri.

The smile instantly left Lexi's face. There was a pregnant pause as she obviously chose her words carefully.

"I have known you all my life, and thanks to my intelligence and all the books I read, I knew you were suffering from depression. Your parents couldn’t even hug you thanks to your skin condition. You didn't have a life, just quietly sat around and simply existed. I think you were governed by pain and afraid to do anything that could cause more.

I admit that it is a little strange to see you this way, but magically altering yourself seems to have worked. I am happy that you found an alternative to suicide."

Terri was sitting there in shock. Her lips were attempting to form words that her brain wasn't even sending.

Lexi looked at Terri, sadness upon her face. "All week long I have seen the change in your personality and your demeanor.

Terri looked down at herself. "Am I really different?"

"When you aren't thinking about yourself as you are now, yes. You smiled at me for the first time ever the other morning. I don't even think your new friends noticed. However you managed to do this, it was a good choice."

"Lexi, magic exists...."

"I am aware of that and you said it before. You are proof. I believe you and until you asked me about headaches, I was willing to pretend nothing had happened because it made you feel better."

"So the other me was right then. This body was my choice and I am more comfortable this way than I want to admit to myself."

"The other you?" Lexi asked.

"I had a commune with my subconscious yesterday afternoon while napping on the couch. I really wasn't ready for what it had to say, but it was right."

Lexi slipped off the bench, leaving her dessert and came around to Terri's side, and tried to hug her as best she could.

"You just need more time. You have only been in this body for a week, and you probably haven't adjusted completely. Plus you need more hugs."

"Depression huh? Not that I am surprised, but it does explain some things." said Allyssa as she sat down opposite Terri and Lexi, a chocolate dipped cone of ice cream in her hand.

"How long have you been listening in?"

"Since you two left the house. I'm supposed to be watching you for part of today."

"Watching me, why?"

"Because of your grandmother. She got her friends to be here, she got me and my coven involved and all to protect you, but we can't keep it up forever. Augustine is convinced that whatever is going to happen will happen soon, so I am officially giving you notice that you are part of a twenty-four hour-a-day watch."

"So no masturbating, cause witches are watching you." Lexi laughed.

Terri just blushed, while Allyssa's eyes closed into thin slits. "We are not witches. We are magical users, call us users for short."

"Sorry, I read Harry Potter. The author makes it sound like they want to be called witches and warlocks."

"Speak for yourself Lexi. One of the boarders at Terri's thinks you could be a user too."

"So it was mentioned the other day. I'm not going to entertain that option right now. Some things are more important, like healing our princess here."

"What do you suggest doctor?" Allyssa said with a hint of sarcasm.

Lexi just gave Terri another hug before responding. "No matter how much getting changed into a woman has helped her, she is still not comfortable being and acting all girly. The more people push, the more you'll just try harder to hide inside yourself," she said, now looking into Terri's eyes.

Terri wasn't looking at either of them; she was staring at her shake. It took a few seconds before she responded with a less than vigorous nodding of her head.

"I am sorry. I really had no idea," said Cindy as she simply stepped into existence as if out of a fog next to Allyssa and took a seat."

"Told you." said Allyssa. "You were doing it all wrong."

"Like you were doing any better!" Cindy retorted. "I don't see Terri running around flaunting magic like you have all morning."

"That is because knowing how to do magic could kill me." Terri replied.

"Well, not exactly." Allyssa countered, her tone becoming as sterile and sanitary as possible. "Technically, as long as you didn't learn anything that could be used offensively, you would be more of an liability than an asset."

"What are the two of you talking about?" Cindy cried out.

"Well, hate to tell you this Cindy, but Terri may very well be one of the most powerful magic users, Period."

"But she just said that magic could kill her." Cindy snapped back.

"Not the magic itself that would kill her, it's what would happen if she knew a great deal of magic and then someone where to use her against her will."

"What are you talking about?"

Allyssa shook her head, "I don't know if you are ready to hear about it. Just talking about the last vortex keeps giving Terri wicked-witch-of-the-east feeling."

"Wicked witch.... she is going to be crushed by a falling farmhouse?"

"It was a eight-story apartment complex, Hungarian design dating back to pre-world war two. I think it was made to withstand a bombing raid enough so that everyone could get out."

"Just so you know." Interrupted Lexi. "While many people, including myself, can appreciate that historical and architectural depiction, I think it is having a negative effect."

Allyssa, who had been facing Cindy while telling her this, turned back, to face Terri facing straight forward and white as a sheet with eyes as wide as possible.

Cindy had witnessed the change in Terri's expression and suddenly felt like commenting.

"All of a sudden, your psychoneurosis is starting to seem a bit more grounded than I first thought."

Allyssa and Lexi both looked at Cindy. "Where did you learn a word like that?" asked Allyssa. "And more importantly, do you even know what it means?" Lexi retorted.

Cindy took Terri's hand. "Terri, I think I should introduce you to someone very important to me. My favorite psychiatrist."

Allyssa lifted one eyebrow. "Your favorite? How can you have a favorite?"

Cindy smiled as she stood up, gently leading Terri, whose blood had returned to her cheeks. "He has to be my favorite, because he is my dad."

---

Synopsis: Sometimes you find yourself saying the wrong thing, at the wrong time for the wrong reason. Sometimes you aren't the only one.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter Ten
The Wrong Things to Say

---

Cindy was driving her sporty little Mazda with Terri in the passenger seat with Allyssa and Lexi sitting in the back. They were casually moving down one of the winding roads that marked one of the more affluent sections of town. Houses were constructed along the slopes of the small valleys that had once sheltered a golf course that had long since gone out of business.

As they passed along the trees, Terri could still make out where old sections of the course used to be. Overgrown with tall grass and weeds, they were still visible all the same.

Allyssa broke the silence. "So, can I ask a question? You father is a head shrinker, but how come you aren't sitting in his chair right now? You must be a case study in and of yourself. Being intelligent and getting A's but acting like a total brainless idiot in public."

"Daddy is quite aware of it, in fact he approved of my charade. We were planning on basing my college study thesis on this."

"Oh boy, I don't know what's worse. That Cindy thinks I need to see a shrink," said Terri.

"Or that she should hardly be in a position to recommend one." added Lexi.

"Exactly." Terri and Allyssa both said, nearly in unison.

"Seriously though." Cindy quipped. "My father and I are both quite sane and this experiment has succeeded far beyond either of our expectations. It's surprising how easily that teachers glaze over me in class because they expect me to answer like a dumb blonde, yet praise me for getting straight A's in class."

"You mean they don't notice the contrast?" Terri asked.

"On the contrary, during every parent teacher conference since sophomore year, dad has to stifle laughter as almost every teacher brings up concern about not being confident enough to participate in class, when I report on the number of times I raise my hand to answer a question, yet I don't get picked."

"Creepy." commented Allyssa.

"Intriguing." Lexi mumbled.

---

"Alright, Cindy asked for me to speak with you, and I accepted because you are one of her friends. I normally won't see relatives or people I know, as a rule, but I will give you the benefit of a consultation. If I feel it prudent, then I will be happy to recommend a colleague." Cindy's Father stated from his desk, as Terri settled onto the couch in his den.

The girls were touring the rest of the house, partly because Cindy wanted to show it off and mostly to give her father and Terri some time alone.

"I'm all a flutter," replied Terri. "That was so inspiring."

"Cindy says you were having a school problem, lets start there."

"Alright." said Terri. "Now this is only going to work if I am perfectly honest, right?"

"Yes, that's correct. You will slow down the process if you lie or omit anything that is bothering you."

"Fine." said Terri. "On the Friday before last, I found out that I am a witch. I can cast magic spells if I wanted to.

"A witch. I see. Keep going."

"But, it's not as simple as that." Terri continued. "To find out that I was a witch, I had to set off a trap spell that changed me from a man to a woman, changed all my clothes into female attire, and put a spell on anyone that knows me, including my parents and everyone at school. Since Friday, I have been forced to attend classes looking like this."

At this, Cindy's father looked up and stopped jotting his notepad. Getting his attention seemed to be Terri's intention all along, as she was now propped on her elbow on the arm of the couch, her legs stretched out until they nearly touched the other arm. She had the most satisfactory smirk on her face.

"You don't believe me don't you?" Terri said, verbally recounting her observation.

"It is a little hard to... believe." Cindy father was suddenly hesitating, mostly because he had noticed a change in his own speech patterns.

Anxiously looking down at himself, his fears came to fruition, along with something he hadn't counted on.

Terri still did not make any move as Cindy's father, now just as female as she was, stood up and moved to a large antique looking floor mirror that he sometimes used as part of therapy.

'She' was wearing a replica of a playboy bunny outfit, complete with the satin ears, corset bodice and cuffs hanging onto her wrists. Black pantyhose drifted down slender legs into, quite opposite of the norm, bunny slippers.

After a few moments of looking herself over, she whirled to face Terry, who was now in his gratuitous male form, sitting up on the couch, but leaning backward, arms crossing his chest, the grin never having left his face.

"I... I... don't believe..." said Cindy's Father.

"Now now Doc, please don't say that again. You can't tell me that you can't believe, not when looking at yourself in a mirror like that."

There was a few seconds of pause before Terri remarked, "I know, it must be the outfit. I'll fix that."

Cindy's father turned to face the mirror again, just in time to watch her current risqué attire bleeding off into thin air. She was now standing completely naked.

She found herself unable of say anything as she stared at herself. She found herself quite attractive, and judging by her features, Terri had made her younger than his fifty-one years.

She decided it would be prudent to 'Test' certain attributes. A hand cupped one breast, lifted it gently then both hands went toward her nipples.

Terry was sitting there, having closed his eyes firmly and snickering to himself. He finally could not hold in the smarmy response.

"As much as I'd love to watch a pretty naked woman play with herself in front of a mirror, I could do it myself in my own bedroom. Have you finally let go of your skepticism, or should I go further?

"No, no, I believe! I Believe." She cried out. "This is amazing."

She strolled over to Terri, and stood right in front of her. "This is incredible."

"You are taking it much better than I did last Friday when the same thing happened to me."

The excited look on her face disappeared as Terry's word registered. "I see, well if you would like to fix this, we'll talk about it."

Terry nodded, his own body almost deflating back into a female one.

Cindy's father looked down, to find she was now wearing the attire she had started with, but that she still possessed breasts.

"Uhm, this isn't quite what I meant."

"I knew exactly what you meant, but I thought this would at least level the playing field. Make you about as comfortable as I was when you gave me that cold bit just as I was sitting down."

"Touché." Cindy's father said. "Okay, this has gone well beyond being able to just refer you on. You've demonstrated something that forces me to now keep your secret."

"You just want to experiment with this new body."

Cindy's father contemplated this for a few moments, her head bobbing back and forth, weighing the pros and cons.

"From a professional standpoint, there may be some truth to your 'Experiment' accusation. But seriously, now that I can accept what you said before, it makes what you said just a few moments ago so ominous. What happened last Friday exactly?"

"Well, it all began..."

---

Two hours has passed since Terri and Cindy's father had been left alone to talk.

Cindy and Allyssa had left Lexi to play with her dollhouse, which despite her intelligence, the hand-made elevator that Cindy's grandfather had added was fascinating her.

They tiptoed up to the den door, hoping to prop their ears on the walnut door, but they found it was ajar slightly and the room empty of people.

Allyssa motioned that she heard Terri's voice coming from the kitchen and both decided to stroll in.

There they found Terri sitting on one of the tall stools around the island and Cindy's father, still female, trying to impart wisdom with a mouthful of cake.

"Nahh, tehh loss fuu dahs haff...(gulp) sorry, now the last few days have actually been rather calm, right?"

"Right. In fact, at this point, I think I am confident enough that I could make it through the rest of the year looking like this."

"Terri! What did you do to Daddy?" Cindy cried out as she saw what happened.

"Calm down hon. We had a minor disagreement, but it's fine now."

Cindy ran over and threw her arms around her currently female father.

"Hey, your dad refused to believe that I was male once. I had to prove it. For a moment it sounded like a southern revival."

"Praise the Lawd." Allyssa added in with a bad drawl and a smile.

Cindy's father was meekly sitting on her own stool, being crushed by her daughter's embrace. "Princess, would you mind letting go?
I'm not as structurally reinforced as before."

"Terry, you change Daddy back now." Cindy snapped across the table.

Terri looked at them for a moment, the smile leaving her face. "Would you like that with or without the impending heart attack?"

Cindy froze, and her father leaned forward, "What do you mean by that?"

"When I changed you earlier, I was crafting the spell in my head, when certain attributes of your body became known to me, as though I was already monkeying with you. You have an arterial blockage plus a bit of tar in your lungs. Want to see where I put them?"

Terri stood up and walked back toward the den, and picked up the wastebasket along side of the desk.

"Here, I can stand looking at that, since I've done it once already." she said, as she held it out for the group to witness.

In the bottom of the bin was a black gooey-looking lump the size of a softball with a smaller, pill-shaped white lump on top.

"Oh, that's gross." Cindy commented, then had to put her hand over her mouth and run off to find a place to vomit.

"Would it have killed me?" Asked Cindy’s father, looking at the semi-solid mass.

"No idea, but you are better off without it."

"Agreed." added Allyssa. "So are you going to stop smoking, or you want to grow another one of those fat wads in your chest?"

"You might have saved my life, I take it the white thing was the block?"

"You got it. Had I ignored it when you became a girl, it would have likely hit you a few moments later and then where would I be?"

"In much more trouble with Cindy than you are now." quipped Allyssa. "Terri here did you a favor. What's that worth to you?"

Cindy's father nodded. "Besides taking her on as a client, and possibly paying her, I would say I couldn’t think of much I could do to compete with that."

"So, when do we start?"

"Saturdays, every week. Does that sound fair? We'll do this here at my home as so to keep it off the books."

"Well, this ruins my weekends." Terri said with a pout.

"Nonsense, I think this could be good for you," said Allyssa. "It might make you less likely to start transfiguring people on a whim."

Terri was about to answer when they were interrupted by a voice coming from the end of the hallway.

"Hello... Honey? Cindy? I'm home!" came the call of Cindy's mother as she stepped into the hallway. She heard whispered voices from the kitchen and headed toward them.

Cindy's father swallowed hard, she was standing in the kitchen, where the island was a mess, the remains of a sheet cake left out as well as three plates with the half-eaten confectionery on them.

Not to mention he was still a she.

Cindy's mother came round the corner and gasped. "Marshall!"
She exclaimed.

Cindy's father's eyes were tensely closed expecting a scream, when her outburst caused his eyes to open.

"You did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen! How sweet." Cindy's mother announced as though he was the winner of Olympic gold.

He turned around to discover that the entire mess, including the cake, plates and every surface clean down to every single crumb.

All the dishes that had been in the sink were clean and dry in the rack to the side. The cake was back under its lid and all the stools around the island were tucked away, nice and neat.

He looked down, relieved at his renewed male appearance.

Cindy was being held captive, a hand over her mouth on the other side of the far door by Allyssa and Terri.

"Don't get bent out of shape." said Allyssa. "Terri fixed her mess and cleaned up the kitchen with a simple twitch of her nose. Now, lets make ourselves scarce."

Cindy nodded and they let her go, and she motioned for them to follow her outside to the back yard.

After reaching the fresh air, Cindy spun on her heels and got right into Terri's face.

"Did you really change Daddy back?"

"Well, I did do the unclothed parts first, but before we left, I assure you he was fully male."

"Don't you dare do something like that again!"

"You worried for your father, or are you scared I might do something to you?"

"Me, I am worried about me. I do NOT want to find myself with a penis, EVER. Do you understand me."

"Whoa, calm down there. How come that frightens you?" Allyssa asked.

"Because," said Cindy. "Terri might want revenge on me for the way I treated him!"

There were a few moments of silence, before Marshall interrupted from where he had been listening in at the door.

"So now it all comes together. It's why Cindy has such a strange attachment toward you. It's all starting to make sense."

"Daddy!" squealed Cindy. "Stop analyzing me!"

"You have never done a hurtful thing in your life, except that one time. Do you know, Terri, that she felt miserable about it for weeks afterward."

"I hardly noticed," said Terri sarcastically. "She did an excellent makeup job covering up her tears, at least so I noticed after I was able to return to school."

Cindy's face suddenly changed to one of remorse. She was looking away from Terri, trying to hide her shame.

Terri shook her head. "I promise, I wouldn't do that to you."

"Do you want to?" asked Cindy. "You can tell me the truth. You want to wait until I'm in the middle of a crowd, so you can cause the most amount of embarrassment."

Cindy turned around to face Terri, and noticed everyone staring at her, along with her father motioning her to stop.

"No," Terri replied solemnly. "A week isn't enough time to forget how I felt all last weekend. I would never put someone else through that."

"Whoo boy, you screwed that up." Allyssa remarked. "You could have just beaten on her like the last time. She'd probably not feel as bad than she does now. What's your problem, oh wait I get it now. You are just being nice, hoping she would retaliate!"

"No, it's not that at all!" Cindy screamed back, only to realize she was changing into a man. Not a strong, able man, but a frail, weak, sickly looking twelve-year old boy wearing his older sister's blouse and skirt.

Allyssa smiled. "I think you should stop worrying about what Terri might or most likely Won't do to you and instead focus on what I just DID!"

"Aaaaackkk! Change me back Now, Allyssa!"

"Make me, you lying windbag! I know the truth now. I suspected something from the start, but your self-centered motives make me sick." Allyssa seethed.

"From the moment you realized what happened to Terri, you've been doing nothing but trying to get on her good side." Allyssa nearly shouted. "You've seen how she acts; yet you worried about some kind of retaliation? You should have been more worried about her feelings and her sanity. This has been anything but easy for her and frankly I think she is taking it rather well."

"Well, maybe if she has popular friends, she won't turn out like you!" Cindy snapped back, his eyes in tears.

"You did NOT just say that." Allyssa responded, less as an accusation, but more as an acknowledgment.

Allyssa then turned and stomped off, leaving a shocked group of people in her dust.

"What did you mean by that Cindy?" Terri asked.

"Those two used to be best friends," replied Marshall. "It all changed on a single day."

Terri looked at Cindy and waved her finger about in the air, and Cindy became her usual self. "Thanks."

"I only did it so you'd pick up where your Dad left off." Terri announced.

"Well, it was tryout day for the cheer squad," Cindy said, as she adjusted her bra and then her skirt. "And she didn't make the team. It devastated her overnight and she started being all Emo and crap. She was a real downer to be with, so we drifted apart. Then she met Sam and Jen, and I guess that's how she learned magic."

"So, you thought you'd win an argument by pouring salt into an old, festering wound." Terri said, with a hint of displeasure in her voice.

"She started it, with the talk about worrying about you doing something to me." Cindy snapped back, defending herself.

"Well, are you?"

"Yeah, just a little. Less now than earlier, I swear." Cindy confessed.

"You know, it wasn’t Allyssa that brought it up. I did."

"I forgot, sorry. With all the shouting and accusations, plus her actually changing me, I got confused."

"Lets hope Allyssa will calm down and start talking to both of us again."

"Last time I opened my big mouth," said Cindy, "she avoided me for a month."

There was a brief silence as both girls thought very deeply.

"I hate to bring in such a tangent right now," interrupted Marshall. "But you never mentioned how you managed to have a child who looks nearly kindergarten age in just a week."

"Why does Everyone and their bloody dog think Lexi is mine today? She's not my daughter!" Terri nearly screamed.

---

Upstairs, Lexi momentarily paused in her inspection of the doll house's elevator controls, "Not yet anyway... Mom."

Synopsis: Allyssa is the target of a test between friends while something sinister runs afoot.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane
 
edited by Sephrena Miller
 
Chapter Eleven
Friends

 

---

 
 
The sun was beginning to set as Cindy pulled out of Terri's driveway, having let Lexi and Terri off. Terri had outwardly mused that Allyssa had simply teleported away after storming off and she wouldn't likely need a ride.

As the two approached the front door, Allyssa came around the corner of the house where she had been lying in wait, hidden from view.

"What did she say?" Allyssa asked. "You know, after I left."

"Little I didn't already know." Terri replied, a thoughtful look on her face. "Both of you seemed to forget that I was there in the same grade as you both since the start of middle school."

"Oh, yeah."

"Excuse me," interrupted Lexi, "but I'm going to go inside. I want to speak to your mother."

As Terri held the door open for Lexi, then closed it so the two of them could have a little more privacy.

"Yeah, she mentioned how you two were like homies way back. Yous two was all tight, Gee." Terri rattled out with a bad accent and her fingers posed in a rather strange imitation of a gang sign.

"Okay, it's bad enough when grown white Men do impersonation of black men from the ghetto. But you simply can't do that now. It's just silly when you're sporting 'Sweater puppies' like those."

"S'ight Girlfriend. We's be in muh crib, Bi'otch."

"Stop it. Please... I am begging as hard as I can without showing emotion."

"Hey, was just trying to get you to smile," commented Terri. "I wouldn't worry about what she said because I knew most of it already."

"If you know so much..." Allyssa said with a sneer.

"When you changed out of your Goth attire the other night, I actually recognized you." Terri interrupted.

"You actually watched me?"

"I watched anyone that might start hitting me. You hung out with Cindy back then remember. You may not have been there molding your boot-print into my stomach, but I considered you just as much of a threat then as I did her."

"But, last Monday. You didn't?"

"Didn't what? Act irritated and show contempt for you just sitting down at my table? I didn't have any idea who you were at that moment."

"Yeah, I guess so. But on the bleachers, you..."

"I yelled at you, I bit your head off, but you hugged me, and I think my hormones were so off at that point, it broke through my shaky, fragile and crumbling wall."

Allyssa walked over, stepped in between Terri's arms and wrapped her own around Terri's waist. Terri, in turn, returned the gesture, closing her eyes.

"I can't say anything anymore," said Allyssa. "Nothing I can say at this point could make our relationship any better. All of a sudden, I want to be your friend, when I used to ignore you. I can't begin to imagine how hard it is to just tolerate me lately."

Terri said nothing, her eyes remained closed. Her face was unreadable in regard to her thoughts.

Allyssa's eyes were now filling with tears. "I know this is coming a bit late, but I want to make it up to you. I don't know how, but I'll find a way."

"Will you and Cindy bury the hatchet?"

"Cindy's already been trying to make up for the way she treated you. I know what I said today, but I was wrong. She's been taking the safe path, while I've been pushing your buttons here and there. I really had no idea what you thought of me."

"So you're jealous that Cindy and I are getting along so well?"

"Maybe a little."

"You want to go out and buy matching charm bracelets or something so we can call ourselves Best friends forever?" Terri said with a smirk, causing Allyssa to pull away long enough to get a good look at her face."

"What's up with you now?"

"Isn't it obvious, I'm a deviant little bitch." Terri replied with a grin befitting the Cheshire cat as Cindy faded in from invisibility, sitting on the porch swing next to them.

Cindy stood up and put her arms around Allyssa. No one spoke for many seconds as Allyssa realized that she had been set up, then a greater realization that Terri was trying to get their old friendship rekindled and she might have incorrectly read Terri's emotional state.

"Cindy?" Allyssa asked. "It's been a long time and both of us have said a few things that I'm sure we regret."

"But that's all in the past." Cindy replied. "We can't move forward if we are stuck in the past. We were friends once and we can be again."

"Now we can all go and get manicures and our hair teased, right?"

Both Cindy and Allyssa looked at Terri, who was leaning against the side of the house, still smiling.

"At least tell me if you two are going to start making out, cause I would totally need a chair, some lotion, and probably my penis."

"Or you could skip that last step and the two of us could watch you touch yourself." Allyssa commented. "Have you been practicing your instrument like a good girl?"

"Oh, I get it. Terri is practicing with her new Organ. That was the worst pun Ally." Cindy said, while scrunching up her nose.

"You said it, not me."

"I have NOT been practicing. It's a bit hard with a bunch of people in the house, who were all friends with my grandmother, I might remind you."

"Worried you'll be a screamer?" Cindy asked.

"Maybe." Terri admitted. "That or just enough noise to make it completely obvious what I'm up to."

"I can relate." Allyssa nodded. "I think I'd be embarrassed if I heard you screaming out in ecstasy too."

"No fair. How come when you rib me it's alright, but when I manage to find an opening, I get an ear-beating for it?"

"Terri. It's not that we were admonishing you for your sexist, chauvinist comments,” Cindy replied, in a very sterile and scientific way. "We were actually impressed by the fact that you have gained enough confidence to be able to say things like that. You asserting your manliness here and now is proof that you are comfortable enough with us you can talk smack."

"Also..." she added, "it means that you're still fighting with yourself for your identity. There will likely always be a part of your inner self that fights against how you look or how you may choose to look in the future."

"Very impressive, Nurse Freud," commented Allyssa. "Now should she expect trains going into tunnels in her future?"

"Terri is testing the water with people she feels comfortable with. We are her sounding board and the people she feels most likely to treat her jesting in the manner that it was intended. Ironically we, who weren't exactly on good terms before, are the ones she trusts enough open up to." Cindy replied.

"Geez Cindy. I can't really tell which version of you is worse, the idiot, or the therapist-in-training." Allyssa commented.

"Not to change the subject, do you know if Lexi can read lips?" Cindy commented.

"I wouldn't put it past her." replied Terri.

"Well, then should we be worried that she has been watching us from the window over there?" Cindy asked as she pointed to the corner, where the drapes were pulled back slightly and then suddenly fell back into place.

"I'm sure it was to see if her plan worked." Terri replied. "She suggested I copy the invisibility spell on Cindy and have her sneak around to the other side of the house. I felt you pass over those alert wards I had put up, so I knew you were here."

"I thought you weren't going to learn any spells that you could use if..."

"Yeah, well I found a way around that. Seems Cindy here was able to recite the spell you cast on her earlier. All she needed was mana and I am already proficient in that."

Allyssa looked at Cindy. "So, which lips did she use?" she asked, as She now sported her own evil grin.

"Told yah she'd bring that up." Terri interrupted.

"Damn, you ARE a sneaky little bitch." Allyssa said. "I'm impressed. So you gave Cindy a little mana..."

"I said Deviant little bitch. If you're going to quote me, please get it right."

"But you gave her a little mana, so She could cast it herself."

"It was Lexi's idea." Cindy defended. "Terri really got a little embarrassed as she brought our lips together. It was sweet watching her blush."

Allyssa nodded. "Maybe later I can show you another way to transfer mana between persons."

"I don't think either of us is ready for that!" Terri exclaimed, as another blush crept across her face.

"I wasn't talking about kissing her vulva," Allyssa snapped back. "That was a joke."
 
 

~*~
 
 
Meanwhile, Lexi had stepped into the kitchen, where Terri's mother was washing glassware from the evening's meal.

"So Lexi, did you two have a grand day out?" Terri's mother asked, hearing the familiar footfalls across the linoleum.

"We... we had a wonderful time." Lexi replied, a tear in her eye.

Terri's mother noticed the faltering in Lexi's voice, turned and swept up the little girl into her arms.

Lexi began to cry into the larger woman's shirt as they embraced.

It took several moments before Lexi calmed down enough to talk.

"Grandma, I wish she hadn't changed. She's so different. She smiles and laughs and we... we just."

"I know dear. I know."

Terri's mother rocked the sniffling child in her embrace for a few moments until Terri came in with Allyssa and Cindy in tow.

"What's going on mom?" Terri asked.

"Lexi is upset is all," Teri's mother replied.

"It's your mom again, isn't it?" Terri growled, not really asking the question, but making a rhetorical comment.

At that moment Allyssa swore she felt something in the house. A reaction to something, that barely registered on the edge of her consciousness.

Terri picked Lexi up, clutching the girl against her chest. This only caused Lexi to start silently crying again.

Terri turned toward her friends. "I'm sorry, but she's had a long day. I'm taking her to bed, since her mother obviously left her here for the night again."

"You think you can make it up the stairs with her?" Terri's mother asked.

"I'll be fine mom," answered Terri as she attacked the stairs two at a time, quickly making progress much like a mountain climber.

"Here, let me show you both out," Terri's mother said as she watched Terri disappear onto the second floor landing.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri carried Lexi through the door into her room and laid her on the bed. Lexi had quickly gotten tired and was falling asleep.

Terri picked up the small bag from the foot of the bed and looked inside. She waved her finger around inside and Lexi's clothes faded from her and were replaced by a set of footie pajamas.

Terri then zipped up the bag and dropped it back at the foot of the bed.

She stood for a moment, contemplating thought, when her suit simply began changing into a short-legged, short sleeved, gray cotton unitard on it's own.

"I can't think of any way that could Possibly be useful," she thought to herself. "But I guess Allyssa wasn't lying when she said you could transfer mana using Those lips."

Terri heard a small groan and turned her attention to Lexi on the bed. She picked the girl up again, pulled back the covers and laid the small girl down, resting her head on a pillow.

Terri then curled up behind her, and they were both asleep in moments.

Two sets of closed eyes failed to notice a shimmer of light from a shoebox in Terri's closet. But moments later Terri's hand brushed a smooth stone on a chain, now hanging about her neck and under the suit, where one hadn't been before.
 
 

~*~
 
 
End of Chapter Eleven

Synopsis: Reality and dream seem to blur as Terri tries to make sense of what is happening.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane
 
edited by Sephrena Miller
 
Chapter Twelve
Mysterious Changes

 

---

 
 
Terri was running through what looked to be part of a desert. She was stumbling about as if drunk but she noticed her hand out of the corner of her eye and realized that she must be sick due to how pale and strangely tinted her skin looked.

She tried to force herself to stop, but it was like she wasn't in control. Nothing she tried had any effect. It was as if she was being forced to watch while someone else was in control.

Suddenly there was a flash as a blue charge of electricity bounced off some rocks in front of her and off to the left, missing her entirely.

Terri imagined what it was, but wanted to turn and see what, or who, sent that bolt at her, but to no avail.

She collapsed forward, and felt her stomach lurch as she vomited up a most sickeningly green liquid. It looked almost radioactive from the color.

There was a hand on her shoulder and she was thrown to the ground, while spun just enough to land on her back with her butt in her own sick. She found herself face to face with a group of people, obviously her pursuers.

Her eyes were watering from the glaring sun overhead and it was impossible to make out faces from only silhouettes. Her left hand reached up to block the sun and was promptly blasted by one of the group.

Terri screamed out as skin, muscle, tissue and bone were ripped away, leaving the bones of her lower arm exposed to the air in a most painful and brutal maneuver. She fell backward, writhing in the pain.

Her reveling in pain was short-lived, as she was pulled to her knees by her hair.

She opened her eyes again, forcing them to focus onto her attackers. Pain was replaced with anger, and she started seeing red, then it faded to black as screams, fevered shouts and a deafening beastal utterance complimenting the rending and wrenching of flesh and bone.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri sat up screaming from her nightmare, which awoke Lexi as a result.

Lexi turned to find Terri holding her left wrist, tears streaming from tightly closed eyes. She had begun rocking in place.

"A nightmare?" Lexi asked, rubbing her eyes. As her eyes came into focus, she turned to look at the source of the commotion and froze in place.

There was a startling crash as Terri's mother and Cathryn slammed their shoulders against the door in a unified effort and managed to muscle their way into the room.

Terri's mother also froze; startled as she witnessed what her child was doing.

Cathryn saw the scene before her, but she moved to comfort the girl.

Terri's mother also broke out of her trance and made her way to the bed. She too threw her arms around Terri, who did not appear to notice the attention.

Lexi watched the seconds tick by, for what felt like an impossible time, before Terri finally stopped rocking and shivering. Her eyes opened slowly, but they sat unfocused and glazed for another long time.

Finally, her eyes blinked and returned to focus and then Terri just started tearing up and audibly crying. She started looking around at her current surroundings.

"Momma, why am I crying?"

"You had a nightmare and we heard you scream."

"I can't even remember," Terri said, while she began to calm down.
 
 

~*~
 
 
As Terri's feet hit the lowest landing, she could smell the sweet aroma of strawberries interwoven with the warmth of oatmeal.

Her symbiote had insisted on long sleeves for the bodysuit and then replicated denim shorts and a button-down blue Hawaiian-style short-sleeved shirt to act as a flowing vest. The fact that it had pinned itself together, preventing her from pulling the over-shirt down off her shoulders, annoyed her just slightly.

It wasn't just the suit acting strangely, as both Lexi and her mother had treated her like an accident victim in the trauma ward. Cathryn had taken it upon herself to remove them both when Terri's pleas for personal space had gone unanswered.

She shivered momentarily as she recalled her strange nightmare, while entering the kitchen. Her mother smiled as Terri sat down on one of the stools at the island, lost in thought. Lexi was sitting at the rear table, slowly and unenthusiastically attacking some cereal.

Terri's mother set a steaming bowl of oatmeal, complete with strawberries, in front of her absent-minded daughter.

"Eat up hon," she said as she wiped her hands. "It won't be as good cold."

Terri took a few bites of her favorite breakfast before stopping to stare at it. "I'm sorry mom, but I'm not really hungry."

"Your nightmare still bothering you?" Lexi asked.

"It felt so real," Terri replied. "The only thing that makes it a dream is that I felt I couldn't control it. It was like I was watching a movie, until I vomited and I found out how realistic it was."

"Then what happened?" her mother asked.

"Some people, who were chasing me, caught up." Terri replied, recalling the experience. "They knocked me to the ground and used some kind of magic to blast my hand off. It hurt like you wouldn't believe. That's about when I woke up screaming."

Terri's mother shuddered as she heard this, but she tried to waive it off. "It was only a dream, dear. You should try to forget it."

"I'm sorry, but it is proving too tough to ignore, let alone forget.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri was back on her favorite couch on the second floor. With her feet hanging over the side as usual, she was barely paying attention to the golf on television. All that mattered was the slow, boring, yet unerringly calming program that she could lose herself in thought to.

She was so lost in thought, she never noticed her mother walk in and go between her and the TV.

Terri did notice when her mother lifted her hair up and began slowly brushing it. This caused her to shudder, which brought gentle hands to a stop.

"That... that didn't hurt, did it?" her mother asked. "I forgot about your skin condition. I think I've spent more time hugging you this week, than I have all last year."

"It's okay, I kind of forgot myself," Terri replied with a sigh. "With all the stuff that's happened to me this week, I've had my mind on other things."

"Still, I didn't mean to hurt you,” her mother remarked. "I ..."

"That's just it; my skin problem went away last Sunday. I haven't been in pain since."

"Is that why you were sick all weekend? That did it?"

No, that was just a side effect of the cure, you could say. I just couldn't handle it at first."

Terri's mother began again with the brush in gentle earnest. This time her daughter did not flinch.

"I can't remember the last time I did this," Terri's mother absently commented. "But I'm sure it was back when you were still shorter than me."

She continued run the tines of the brush slowly through Terri's long brown hair. She was barely paying attention to what she was doing, intent on watching her daughter’s face.

Without warning, she noticed tears beginning to stream down Terri's cheeks.

"I... I remember the last time and I was fighting to get out of your grip, Terri choked out between sobs. "I wanted to get away so badly, probably to go play with some stupid toy. If I knew then, that I would be so alone for eight years, I never would have left your arms."

"You were never alone," blurted her mother.

"It was just as bad. I couldn't stand to be hugged and there was nothing you, Dad or a dozen doctors could do about it. It took months just to get used to the pain enough to get a good night's sleep and even now, whenever someone touches me I flinch."

Terri's mother moved to the couch, lifting her daughter up and putting arms around her. Terri was beginning to overreact and hyperventilate, but a few gentle squeezes and raking fingers through her hair a few times seemed to calm her down.

"There there dear, it's going to be alright," Terri's mother whispered softly. "I'm here for you. I'm always going to here for you."

"I'm sorry I ruined this moment." Terri stated, as she sighed and wiped her eyes. "It's hard to get used to human contact again."

Terri's mother resumed her work with the brush without letting the girl pull away. "Just relax and let me make up for all the times I missed."

Terri made only a murmur, seemingly the effect on the beast that was her personality was that of soothing and placating.

Nearly an hour of stroking, holding and letting Terri doze off before another word was spoken.

"Wake up princess."

"Uh, uhm... was I sleeping?"

"It's alright. I want to know if you want to try something else you and I haven't done in awhile."

"What's that?"

"Shopping." Terri's mother happily replied.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Sitting in the passenger seat of the family's Minivan, Terri protested for what felt like to her, the eighth time. "Mom, you can't be serious."

"I certainly am dear. No daughter of mine is going commando, just for style. I was planning on taking you yesterday, but you and Lexi were gone until after the mall closed, so we'll just have to do this today. I do have more in mind than just underwear though."

Terri sighed. She knew better than to keep trying to argue. She settled for attempting damage control instead. Trying to keep from getting anything too girly. She may have been getting more comfortable with her body, but she wasn't ready for all the frilly things she was picturing her mother had in store for her.

The rest of the trip to the mall was in silence. Terri nervously fidgeted in the front seat, next to her mother.

"What's wrong dear?" her mother asked, trying to hide a smile.

"Well, I'm not really uncomfortable," replied Terri. "But I'm not really all that enthused about this either."

"I know dear. You have always managed to finagle your way into grabbing clothes while out with your father. Well, I'm not going to let you come home with a few cheap pairs of cotton t-shirts this time."

They reached the mall and went inside. Terri then found herself being nearly literally dragged into the first store that catered to teenage girl’s fashion.

The clerk to offer assistance was turned away by a vicious snarl and the fire-in-the-eyes glare from Terri.

The first argument to occur was about the lack of material around the rise of girl's jean shorts and their inability to keep themselves on and, as Terri happily noted, how much easier they are for the boys to remove. This revelation netted Terri the win and she got three pairs of cargo shorts.

Next was a myriad of blouses, most in a pastel color that Terri threatened to become nauseous from, or some ruffling at the sleeves that was unnecessary in someone's very vocal opinion.

Somehow Terri's mother managed to nudge three tops into an acceptable territory by explaining how the blouse's violet color would go well over her new obsession with bodysuits and the meager amount of lace that dipped the collar into the cleavage wouldn't be showing anything for the same reason. A matching red and another one in white also found themselves into a bag before they left.

Terri suggested the local Hot Topic and wormed a black T-shirt out of her mother. On the front, across the bust it had the word
'Kitten' done up to look like a neon sign and the sides and back were adorned with violet tiger stripes.

They were just about to leave when Terri's mother stopped and tried to press a plaid schoolgirl-type skirt against Terri's waist to see how it looked. This ignited the "I have to wear a cheer uniform now and that's quite enough!" defense.

A stop at the department store for a swimsuit for the coming summer, some whining about modesty, or lack therein, was then replaced by a trip into the sporting goods store, because a bikini was out of the question and only the racer one-piece suits covered enough to suit Terri.

Finally, it was the part Terri dreaded the most, lingerie. So far she had gotten by with only having to wear an actual bra on Monday and until lunch on Tuesday, where she had been introduced to the symbiotic suit she now sported.

Despite the mixed feelings she had about having a semi-intelligent living thing touching nearly every inch of her body, knowing that it was also assisting in improving her general state of mind, was enough for her to keep it on.

Now Terri feared her mother would attempt to force a thousand pairs of tiny lacey panties, all of a total of eight pounds of gauzy and thin enough to nearly be transparent material, onto her.

She was expecting something bad in her eyes and wasn't disappointed when her mother asked this store clerk for recommendations on a thong. To her surprise however, the clerk was instructed on finding some in soft cotton that were more functional than flashy.

The clerk returned with ten pairs of low-rise cotton thongs in various shades of black, gray and white having estimated Terri's size.

They had only one seam, located at the back. Terri was momentarily impressed at the fact that they had each been cut from only one piece of fabric.

"You may find..." said the clerk, "these will work excellently under that suit of yours."

But Terri's mother was noting her daughter's fascination. "We'll take them all," and scooped them up before she could protest.

As the clerk took the items to the counter, Terri hung back while her mother went off deeper into the store.

"Your mom is pretty cool," said the clerk as she stopped to stand by Terri. "If it wasn't for the fact that I work here, my mom would have a fit seeing me in a thong, much less picking them out."

"Yeah, well Mom has always been very liberal and modern thinking, unlike me."

"I was going to ask if you were a little warm," the clerk commented. "That, and maybe a bit of a tease."

You think I am showing off?" Terri asked as she turned toward the clerk.

"If that suit was any tighter, I'd only have the color left to imagine."

"Don't you mean..." Terri quipped, "…that the boys would only have skin tone to the imagination."

"You must not get hit on by many girls."

"Not until recently, but it has become a reoccurring theme."

"Maybe it's because we see you checking us out," the clerk replied. "You seem to be lingering just a little longer than someone about to tell me how my belt horribly clashes with my mascara."

"I wouldn't dream of making a statement like that, mostly because the one time I'd be most likely to be wearing makeup would be at a funeral."

"Your own I assume. You being the stiff?"

"Damn straight, and let me tell you, it's going to take quite a bit too, after they dig me out from the house that falls on me."

"Comparing you to the wicked witch of the east? That's a novel idea."

"Well, I am not as optimistic as some of my new friends."

"Did you just move here?"

"No, but my popularity finally came out of its cocoon," Terri replied back.

"You talk like it's a bad thing," said the clerk.
"If you only knew what I've been through," Terri commented, the tone of her voice only hinting at her opinion, "You'd probably not be joking about it."

"You're that girl from the school attack. I heard about that," she exclaimed “How did you manage to knock out two guys who were both bigger and stronger than you?"

"I can't say. I don't really understand myself. I just blacked out and came back standing over the top of one of them."

"C’mon, you got to be kidding me. I figured you knew Kung-Fu or whatever. You got some Hyde complex then?"

“What's a Hyde complex? You mean like Jeckel and Hyde?"

“Yeah, except unlike that bad eighties movie, you don't change sex too."

Terri started laughing. "Right, I can change sex anytiiii....ime," came Terri's reply as she realized what she was saying.

"Nice try, but I don't believe in magic. And anyway, you are gorgeous. Why would want to change into a boy unless...."

Her sentence stopped cold as Terri's hair pulled itself back into her scalp. An angry snarl appeared on her, now his face.

"Unless I was one to begin with, right?" Terry asked, his tone more condescending than angry.

The clerk went from frightened to shocked to amused. "What are you planning to do when your mother comes back and finds her 'daughter' not a daughter after all. Will your little perverted mind control magic on your mom break?"

Terry suddenly realized what he had done, taking his eyes off his parent, and then changing into a guy. He spun around to look for her, only to find that she was standing behind him.

"You both assume that I was affected by a spell in the first place."
 
 

~*~
 
 
To Be Continued...
 
 
End of Chapter Twelve

Synopsis: Terri is in-over her head and angry to boot. Her mother is the latest in the list of people who know her secret. Who else knows? Is her life ever going to stop getting more complicated?

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane
 
edited by Sephrena Miller
 
Chapter Thirteen
A Conspiracy?

 

---

 
 
Terry was currently male, in clothes he normally only sported in his female form, in the middle of the mall's lingerie store. This in and of itself was cause of concern, but that didn't matter much to him.

The fact that, in a moment of rage caused by a few choice words by a seemingly light-hearted, but naive clerk, Terri had angered, morphing into His radically muscled state. He had completely forgotten that his mother was still close by, but when the clerk happily pointed out the oversight, Terry had spun around only to find her looking him over.

"Muh muh... Mom?" was all he could get out. He was too stunned to know exactly what to say. Not only did his mother know what had happened, she hadn't admitted it. Terry was suddenly hurt because his mother could have made last weekend's hysterics much less potent and lengthy if she had just outed herself. A cold, heavy, feeling pressed into his chest.

Terry turned back to face the clerk, feeling the presence of eyes on the back of his head. Said clerk was grinning at him, which rang of familiarity. "Are you involved in this too?" he asked.

"I knew she hadn't recognized you Jenni." Terry's mother commented from behind, a large smile on her face as well. "I could hear you spurning her on, even from over there. She has developed a bit of a short fuse, at least when it comes to her gender identity. But, other than that, how did she look?"

"I am so jealous, even more than before." Jennifer replied. "Though I do have to appreciate the beefcake in front of me now."

"Before?" Terri asked as she composed herself and shifted back. "I don't remember being female at any time before last week, is there something I'm missing?"

"You mean you don't remember back when we were preschoolers? Our mothers used to babysit us, taking turns. We have the pool in my backyard and after swimming I used to get you in my dresses for tea parties."

Terri's cheeks turned a vivid shade of red, making Jenni laugh. "I guess I am partially to blame for your easy acceptance of your situation."

Terri was starting to remember but, to her, it felt like a life long ago. The face of a little girl with hair pulled back into a ponytail, complete with evil grin, barely resembled the beauty before her.

Brown hair, highlighted with reds and blond strands, framed Jenni's face before resting on her shoulders. A tiny, almost nonexistent, bump of a nose, poked out from between her soft, blush-covered cheeks. Eyes sparkled like cobalt blue stones encased in ice.

Jenni snaked her arms around the taller girl's waist. "It's so good to see you, especially not being depressed or afraid of being touched," she said. "I haven't seen you in years."

"How did you know it was me?" Terri asked. "How did you remember? Heck, I didn't recognize you and you didn't spontaneously have a sex change."

"I got a frantic phone call from Jenni a week ago yesterday," interrupted Terri's mother. “She told me that something tried to tell her brain that you were a girl on Friday night..."

"But I knew better. I mean how could I have been jealous of a girl in boys' swimming trunks?"

"WHAT?!" Terri nearly shouted. "What are you talking about?"

"Frankly," commented Terri's mother, "I want to hear this. I never got the whole story the first time. Three-year olds don't have a great grasp on telling the facts."

Jenni blushed just slightly. "Don't you remember when we were kids? I was a little conniver and I guess you liked me, because I could get you to do anything I asked you to."

Terri began to blush as Jenni relayed her tale. She could recall several events where Jenni had talked him into what now she considered very embarrassing situations.

Terri snapped back to reality just as her mother jumped in and finished up the story with, "... so that's why, when I came to pick him up, you had finagled his clothes and his swimming trucks off him. He was wearing a little girl's bathing suit under a cute little pink dress."

"Yeah," Jenni said with smile. "We switched almost as soon as my mom got us home. She asked him if he wanted to make me switch back, but he said he was fine in my girly suit. Mom just totally went with it."

Jenni turned to look at Terri, whose cheeks were the brightest shade of red, then gave the taller girl a tight squeeze. "I'm so glad to see you!" she wheezed out as she let Terri go. "You're skin isn't sensitive anymore, is it?"

Terri smiled back. "Do you think I would have let you do that if I was?"

Jenni's smile instantly vanished. "Please forgive me."

"For what?" Terri asked.

"She won't remember, dear," answered Terri's mother. "She lost the memories from that day, probably while she recovered."

Jenni broke into tears. "It was the last time I saw you. It was a few months after your condition began..."

Terri had put her finger over Jenni's lips. "If I don't remember, then I'm sure that I don't want to dig it up. Just let it go. I don't need to be reminded about my old self. I may not look the same, but it’s definitely better."

Jenni nodded, her own thoughts capturing her attention for a few moments, the memory only causing her to embrace Terri again, only stronger.

Terri was deep in thought herself, but on a different topic. Led into a trapped situation by her mother, confused and angered by an old friend who seemed generally concerned but still willing to mess with her, left her wondering what other secrets were being kept from her.

Jenni's gaze had refocused during this time and a smile crept across her face.

"You ok?" Terri asked.

"Excuse me," Jenni said, turning toward Terri's mother, "May I be allowed to take your daughter out to dinner?"

"Oh, you want to take Terri on a date?" Terri's mother asked, with a grin on her face. "Hmm, I don't know young lady. I expect anyone who dates my daughter to be on their best behavior, including romantic activity."

Both girls blushed heavily again. "Mother!" Terri snapped. "You're embarrassing me."

"I suppose so, but I felt I needed to say it."

"I promise that we will be virtuous in all deeds, if not in word and thought."

"Alright," Terri's mother nodded in approval. "When shall we expect you?"

"About seven, as I will need a few minutes to get home and freshen up."

"We had best be going then, as my daughter will need time to get ready for her date."

"Mom, it's not a date."

"Still dear, you must look your best."

"I never said yes," Terri protested. "What if I say no?"

Terri looked at them, having quieted them both with a single phrase. She was momentarily smug, satisfied with her successful blocking of attempts to ruin her day, that is until she noticed the pouting on Jenni's face and the scowl on her mother.

"Alright, I'll go," Terri relented. "Just stop giving me those dirty looks."

"Well, I need to get back to work," Jenni sighed. "Be ready by seven, Ok?"

"She will, don't worry," replied Terri's mother as she pushed her daughter out of the store.
 
 

~*~
 
 
"Mom, when did you figure it out?" Terri asked, sitting again in the passenger seat, on the way home.

"I always knew dear. Your Grandmother told me, many years ago, to expect something drastic to happen to you but she didn't say what. She said your condition would be cured, but with a price."

"What else did she say?"

"She told me that you'd have some trouble adjusting, but that I should play along for your sake," she replied. "I'm sorry."

"I just wish that she would have told me what the Fuck she had planned for me."

"Check the glove box dear," her mother replied. "And watch your mouth. No son...-turned-daughter of mine will swear like a sailor," she added with a smile.

Terri opened the glove box, only to see a letter addressed to her.

"Freaky, the way she always did that," her mother commented as she watched Terri remove the letter, turning it over.

Terri tore open the envelope with fervor, a tear already running from her eye.

"To my dearest granddaughter," the letter began, penned in ink. "I am sorry for everything that has happened to you so far, that is partially or in whole my fault. Mostly, I am sorry that I couldn't be there for you those last eight years, when you needed me most."

"I know the question that is on your mind most, but I can't yet tell you why I have done all this. Knowing the future changes the future, but your friend is right, that everything I have done is ultimately to keep you alive."

"On to your biggest fear yet, and no it's not being crushed by a building. Your mother will confirm that you were born a healthy baby boy. It was the vortex seal I had put on you that screwed things up."

"Due to the seal and the vortex interacting upon you, your body was in a state of flux that only reared its head during puberty. Parts of your body attempted to mature as different genders, but you already figured that out too, didn't you."

"Why did I make you female when I broke the seal? Why did I even bother breaking it? You and your new friends already figured out the answer for yourself. The only answer you don't have is the one that makes this letter harder to write with each passing second.

"Sealing you up was killing you, literally. If you didn't end your own life from depression, the constant pain was taking its toll on your nervous system and your internal organs in turn. You would not have made it to your twentieth birthday, just falling asleep one night and never waking up. I love you too much to let that happen.

As I write this, your parents are on their way home, to relieve me from sitting for you. You turned ten, just three days ago. I will only get to see you one more time before I leave this world."

"I know you won't get this for many years, but I hope you can forgive this senile old woman for all I've done to you."

Terri had trouble finishing. Her mind was realizing in many different directions. In the end, however, all paths crossed back together, leaving her with a single, overwhelming realization.

Terri crumpled the paper together in one hand while fighting with the tears.

"I forgot to tell her goodbye," Terri choked out. "I went to bed before she left and I never got to say goodbye."

Terri's mother pulled the car off the road, put it in park, then leaned over and held her child.

Terri didn't outright cry, she just quietly sobbed and returned the embrace.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri stood in front of her mirror in a provocative, little black dress or "LBD" as her mother had called it.

It had a high neck in the front that left her arms and shoulders exposed, but with a dark mesh in the back to hold everything up.

Light caramel nylons accented her legs before dipping into strapped pumps with a modest heel.

After having upset her mother when she had suggested she would just wear what she had on, her closet had been raided and subsequently tossed, as a thief would look for hidden valuables.

Terri had let slip that her clothes were magic too, then, demonstrating her point, caused her mother to squeal in glee before sitting down at the computer.

Google's responses for “little black dress” were a number of dress sites which had ultimately resulted in getting an image of the items she now wore.

The combination of Terri's photographic memory, the suit's willingness to please and a stern look from her mother was the reason she looked as she did now.

"How come Grandma never mentioned my suit?" Terri asked, as she was handed one of the new black thongs. "And why are you making me wear this underwear?"

"You're in a dress now dear and you've hardy trained to walk in heels," her mother replied. "I refuse to let you expose yourself if you were to happen to trip and fall onto your hands and knees. As for your grandmother, well, she didn't tell me many things."

"The suit can just cover this up too, ya know," Terri quipped back as she pulled her dress back down, having situated her underwear on her hips.

"I'd rather you not let some sort of malleable, creature-ish substance have the freedom to molest your... naughty bits."

"A little late for that, I'm afraid," replied Terri with a smile. "Last Friday night in the tub. I was floored, well... until I went under and inhaled a lung-full of water."

"That's so nasty! I can't believe you let it penetrate you!"

"First you call them naughty bits, but you use words like penetration. Just say it Mom. 'Did the creature fuck me?' Go ahead and say it."

"Well, did it?"

"No... it wouldn't do that. It just swirled itself around on the surface, playing with my knob, well what left of it anyway."

"I just want to make sure you aren't hurt dear." her mother asked, as she rubbed Terri's shoulders. "How did it make you feel?"

Terri just blushed. She likely couldn't put it to words, or she was just embarrassed. "I liked it, mom. It was an amazing feeling."

Her mother smiled as she looked over her daughter’s shoulder, into the mirror. "So, anything else I need to know about your first time?"

"I am soooo not ready to be on a date like this," Terri said. "I can't believe that you two talked me into this."

"But you're going to enjoy this so much. Much more than orgasming in a bathtub, thanks to your suit. Which reminds me, anything else you want to tell me about that thing?"

"Well," Terri, replied, "Allyssa told me that someday I would be asked by my 'malleable, creature-ish substance' to carry its baby creature-ish substance inside me."

"NOW?!" her mother exclaimed, with wide eyes. "Are you pregnant?"

"No, no!" Terri retorted, indignantly. "Only someday, unless I go back to being male full time."

"I'm going to be a grandmother to a blob!" her mother wailed in a mocking manner, obviously making light of the situation.

Terri rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's not going to be for a loonnng time. Trust me. I am nowhere near ready to carry any baby, human or blob."

Terri decided to change the topic, for curiosity had gotten the best of her.

"So, since you know and Lexi knows, does that mean Dad does as well?"

"Your father has no idea. He is as clueless as ever."

"But you knew that Lexi knew, huh?"

"Oh yes, we discussed it on Monday, while you were at school."

"How come you didn't tell me?" Terri implored.

The conversation abruptly ended by the sounds of the doorbell. It was a repeating in eight different manners like a mutating echo from different electronic chimes about the house. Terri's father had picked up several random chimes from different shops, placing them along all the hallways and public rooms in the house.

"Oh, that's probably Jenni now," said Terri's mother happily. "Stay up here for a few minutes while I distract her. You'll make a better impression by strolling down the steps.

"Yeah," Terri replied. "It'll take me that long to get used to walking in these heels."

Terri's mother left, hurrying downstairs, leaving Terri to stare at herself in the mirror. She lifted her breasts a few times with her hands, to watch them jiggle.

"Well, I AM sexy," she commented to herself, before walking out her door.

Terri crouched, so she could peek to the bottom of the stairs without walking down first. She could see her mother's slacks facing a bare pair of legs that disappeared into a lightweight scarlet skirt. Terri couldn't see more than two inches of the bottom of it, but she could hear the voice.

Jenni was much less confident than before, the wavering in her voice apparent from Terri's vantage point at the top of the stairs.

Terri took a deep breath and then slowly began to descend the stairs, putting one unsteady foot in front of the other.

It was both her nerves and the raised heel that made her take her time and watch as she planted each foot.
 
 

~*~
 
 
To Be Continued...
 
 
End of Chapter Thirteen

Synopsis: A date, a drive, and an accident that wasn't. A shocking realization, accusations and the truth come out. It's all been going according to plan, or has it?
 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane
 
edited by Sephrena Miller
 
Chapter Fourteen
Truths and Lies

 

---

 
 
Terri could tell by the look on Jenni's face, she was rendered speechless by Terri's very appearance. There was little doubt to any hints of jealousy or envy. It was all there, as if it had been plainly written on her face.

She was also wearing a simple dress, but had not gone as far as Terri had been.

It was a pale red, and the material was flared at the skirt, so looking less like the tube Terri was in and instead rippling into soft folds at her knees. The top of the dress was a tank style, with simple straps and a modest square cut above her chest.

Terri wanted to walk over and touch her, to run fingers down her arms. She remained motionless, however, while Jenni gawked at her, sizing her up in much the same way that she had done.

"Well, are we going?" Terri asked. "I'm hungry and this beast can be tamed in no other way," she said as she patted her stomach.

"Not yet you don't," Terri's mother chided. "You two aren't going anywhere until I get a picture of this for the scrapbook."

Terri sighed as a small camera was produced from a pocket. She attempted to smile while holding her emotions in check.

She was so focused on the camera, prepared for the flash, when she noticed, only to late, Jenni's face approaching her cheek. The picture snapped just as a warm pair of lips pressed against the side of her face, followed by intense giggling.

"Ok," Terri's mother said, as she tried to keep a straight face. "Now let’s try one for real."

"Sorry Misses D'Angelo. I couldn't help myself."

"You shouldn't apologize to me, dear."

Terri was red-faced, standing stiff as a board. In her mind, Jenni was as conniving as ever, except that level of manipulation made her dangerous.

Terri was so lost in thought, that she was startled when the flash went off a second time.

Jenni squealed, took Terri's hand and nearly dragged her out the door.

"Hey, so where do you want to go eat?" Jenni asked as she led Terri to the passenger door of her car.

"I don't know," Terri replied, waiting for her to open the door. "Mom was expecting some kind of formal romantic date."

"I see that," Jenni replied, unlocking the door and opening it. "I'm afraid you are a bit overdressed for where I planned to take us."

"Where were we going?" Terri asked, as she watched Jenni circle the car and then attempted to figure out how to get into the car while being unable to separate her legs above the knee.

"Uhm, Denny's," Jenni replied, before ducking her head into her side of the car.

She chuckled, watching Terri maneuver, failing to figure it out.

"Girls in dresses sit their butt in first then twist their legs in," Jenni commented.

Terri plopped down in the seat with an "Oh... thanks," before drawing her feet in the car and pulling the door shut.

"I already hate these heels," Terri said as the car pulled away from the curb and breezed down the street.

"I'd tell you that you could get used to it," Jenni commented, "but that would hinge on if you were going to spend a lot more time as you are."

"Well, my hands are kinda tied in that matter. Until a large group of magic users get together to make a counter spell, everyone in this town that ever knew me will think I've always been lithe and busty."

"Did I mention that I am jealous of you?"

"A few times I think."

"This is just the first time I've gotten a good look at you."

"What are you talking about? You told me earlier today that my bodysuit left only color to the imagination."

"That's not really what I meant," replied Jenni. "Just forget it."

It didn't take long for the car to pull into the parking lot, coming to a stop in an empty place around the building from the front entrance.

"Are you sure you wanted to go in like that?" Jenni asked as she shut off her car and turned toward Terri, only to notice that Terri was back in the bodysuit, leather jacket and her curb-stomping boots.

"Damn, that must be nice to magic your clothes like that," Jenni sarcastically commented.

Terri slowly kicked the door open with her foot, "Yeah well, I figured we could both be making a statement and mine is getting back out of this car without letting a dress bind into my crotch. Seriously, I can wipe my own butt. I don't need my clothes to do it for me."

She bumped the door shut with her butt, ran around the car and held out her hand. "May I assist miss?"

"Why thank you," Jenni replied with a smile.

Terri walked backward, enjoying the view of Jenni as they approached the door before spinning around and throwing it open.
 
 

~*~
 
 
The girls had been quickly ushered to a corner table, provided sodas and their orders taken in possibly less than a minute. It had prevented them any time to talk.

Now that they were alone, Jenni decided to press the question.

"How did it happen?"

"What?" Terri asked.

"Uhm, Your breast augmentation." Jenni replied. "Or did you suddenly forget?"

"Oh... no, I didn't forget," Terri returned, "It’s hard to explain."

"Try me."

"Grandma left me a note. I'm a special kind of magic user and she felt she had to seal up that magic to save my life and so that I would grow up normally. The downside is that the seal is what made me hurt so badly."

"But now you're unsealed, so how come you're female and loving it?"

"Terri leaned forward. "Like I said, I'm kinda stuck this way for awhile. It's not like this isn't tolerable."

"You're not just tolerating it, you're downright comfortable. I mean look at you, you've got natural girl nearly down whenever someone is watching."

Terri leaned back against the back of the booth and sighed. "I just can't win, can I?"

Jenni hung her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to chew on you so easily, it's just..."

"What?"

"Do you remember, back when we were kids? You promised to marry me."

Terri began to blush. "Is that what this was all about?"

"YESSS!" Jenni hissed out as she leaned over the table. "I swear I'll hold you to that promise."

"You haven't seen me in eight years and you think we'd be a great couple?" Terri replied.

Jenni was taken back. She looked at the serious glare her friend was now giving her. Jenni realized that Terri wasn't such as easy pushover as before.

Terri, for her part, was coming to realizations of her own. The sneaky, smarmy girl across from her had laid down her cards, possibly in an attempt to persuade Terri into changing her mind, but the gambit had failed.

Jenni was starting tear up, which Terri took as both declaration of guilt and the surrender flag.

Terri slipped out of her side and into the seat next to Jenni. She put an arm around the smaller girl. "Hey, don't cry. So I'm not going to be your dream boy. There are plenty of marry-able men."

Jenni shook her head. "You don't understand. I... I forgot about it too. I broke our promise, not you. I have been going out with this guy for a month now!"

"Shhh, no need to go hysterical. I'm happy for you. I really am."

"You're not mad?" Jenni asked hesitantly.

"Do I look mad?" Terri answered. "I swear, I'm happy for you. I gotta ask. Did you get some yet?"

Jenni's tears abruptly stopped as she got a grip on Terri's statement. She straightened up from her slump, so she could look her straight in the eye.

"You've changed."

"Well, Duh."

"No, I mean really changed. You were so..."

"Well, suddenly being popular, wanted, and huggable did have an effect on me. Plus, there is something else, but you can understand that I can't tell you what that is."

"I wouldn't expect any of those to be confidence or arrogance boosters,” replied Jenni.

"Well," Terri admitted, "For the first time, I feel whole. It was like I just a fragment. I see things differently and things effect me differently, so I act accordingly."

"I'm not sure if I like the new you," Jenni commented. "You're a bit brasher than I remembered."

"I'm pretty sure it's a mood swing thing. I spend at least ten minutes a day bawling my eyes out for almost no reason whatsoever. If you got invited to be a cheerleader on your third day as a girl, wouldn't it make your day?"

"No."

"What do you mean no?"

"Well, I don't consider myself shallow enough to enjoy being on a cheer squad."

"Well, okay then. I guess I was crying for the wrong reason."

"Unless you want to be shallow, then it's okay."

"You really should meet the leader of our school's squad, because you might think your statement is rather prophetic."

"I've been to a few games where our teams clash, what does that bubblehead have to do with anything."

"She's a straight A student, writing a thesis paper on perceptions of intelligence."

"No way, so she invited you why? She wanted to study instant beauty?"

"No, she invited me because the same spell that you overcame a week ago, couldn't block the guilt she felt for beating the tar out of me a few years back. But the reason I actually got talked into going to the tryout in order to catch some rapists."

"That was you? The one boy claims you used some super Kung-Fu on him."

"I don't remember. Grandma triggered some spell on the door and I blacked out and when I came back, I'm standing over one of them, fist cocked back, ready to smash again."

Terri waited for a response, but Jenni appeared to be deep in thought. Finally she spoke.

"I'm sorry for creating a tangent, but I'm more interested in you right now."

Terri hopped back over to her side of the booth. "So, what do you want to know?" she asked with a smile, as she mentally prepared herself for the usual dating-type questions.

"Are you going to stay female forever?"

The Question hit Terri with a shock, something she wasn't expecting. Her smile instantly faded and she hung her head.

"Well?" Jenni asked.

"I could if I wanted to," Terri replied slowly and meekly. "and... I thought about it."

"Why?"

"Because I feel good. It hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be."

"That's not a good excuse. You haven't thought about it at all! What about menstrual cramps, or pregnancy? Are you finding men attractive all of a sudden now?"

Terri looked at Jenni, a glare that was piercing and disturbing.

"I don't know about cramps, but I do know how long it took to fall asleep when it felt like my back was on fire. I got used to it, I'm sure this couldn't possibly be worse."

Terri figured this would shut Jenni up. Nothing like revealing the past to twist the knife, as it were.

"No never answered me, are you going girl forever?" Jenni asked.

"I don't know. I haven't decided. Some days... I want to," Terri admitted.

"You can't!" barked Jenni.

"Why, because it'll interfere with your little plan?"

"Because you will get hurt," Jenni answered, "and I don't want that to happen."

Jenni looked downcast, staring at the tabletop.

Terri was about to reply, when the waiter showed up with their meals.

The rest of dinner passed in silence.
 
 

~*~
 
 
The ride home was nerve wracking for Terri, as she tried to understand what Jenni was so worried about. The fear she radiated seemed so out-of-place.

Terri saw the turn, but was surprised when Jenni drove past it. "Uhm, where are we going?" she asked.

But Jenni said nothing, just continuing to drive silently. In the darkness of the car, Terri could barely make out her profile, except when passing cars' headlights illuminated her. Terri swore she could see gritted teeth.

At wasn't until they hit the highway leading out of town that Jenni spoke up. "I'm taking us both far away from here. Far away from where you could be hurt. We'll start a life together in a place far away and you can be female all the time if you want."

"I may not enjoy it," Jenni continued, "but if it's what makes you happy I'll accept it."

"Jenni, what are you talking about? We can't just run away!"

"Sure we can. We can get our G.E.D. diploma after we work as waitresses for a year or so. Then if you want, you can start taking college classes and we'll go from there. You'll be safe from your grandma and her plan. Safe from this horrible magical world she thrust you into."

Jenni was moving at highway speeds now and in the darkness, the trees along the edge of the road illuminated for but a second as she whizzed past.

Hearing no retort, she stole a glance at Terri, who was strangely asleep. She had little time to think of it, as her headlights showed someone standing in the road directly in front of her.

She slammed the brakes but she was too close and she wrenched the wheel to the right, fishtailing the car as it continued skidding down the down sideways.

The road was curving to the left, so she was now spinning into the ditch, tearing up great tracks of earth with the sideways motion of her tires.

The car came to a stop facing the road, having made nearly a complete rotation.

Jenni Shut off the car, kicked open her door, jumped out of the car onto her knees and promptly threw up onto the grass.

A hand appeared in her periphery. A small, familiar hand. She took it and Lexi helped her up, while shutting the car door.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked, wiping the last of traces of sick off her face with her arm.

"I think we both know that is a stupid question," answered Lexi.

"I nearly ran you over in the road!" Jenni barked. "What if I hadn't seen you in time?"

"One, I knew where to stand," answered Lexi. “And two, I wasn't in the road, I only made it look that way."

"You little bitch!"

"Name calling will get you nowhere."

"Does your mother know you're out here, playing on county highways in the middle of the night?"

"If she did, you would be in much greater trouble than you are now."

"Back to my first question, why are you out here?" Jenni asked, this time hoping to get to the meat of the situation.

"Stopping you from running off with her," Lexi answered.

"You can't just let this happen. I know why you are letting this happen, but it's wrong."

"You're right," said Lexi. "But this isn't going to solve it."

"Your mother is inhuman, you know that?"

"I do."

"She's willing to let all this happen, all for what? So she can take over once Terri is gone? It's absolutely crazy!"

"No one has ever accused my mother of being sane, not for a long time."

"And you," Jenni pointed an accusing finger at the little girl. "You're going to let it all happen again too, aren't ya?"

Jenni continued, not letting Lexi get a word in edgewise. "You're going to let Terri go backward in time, despite what we both know will happen, just so you'll be born!"

Lexi suddenly grew, not older or mature, but simply larger. Her face came into perfect height with Jenni, as if only so she could stare the woman straight in the eye.

"You don't understand at all," Lexis’s voice was lower, deeper and filled with anger. "It's not happening the way you think it is."

Jenni was startled. "What do you mean?"

Lexi turned and sat on the edge of the car, then deflated to her former self with a sigh.

"I know you mean well, but you need not involve yourself. Something has changed. Things aren't going to plan. There is a deviation I didn't account for."

"What?"

"Great Grandmother. She is trying to change the future."

"But she started all this mess, now she still trying to change it? Dimmit!"

"She messed up somehow. I'm sure she never intended things to work out this way."

"But what did she do?"

"She linked Terri... to mother."

"WHAT?" shrieked Jenni. "What are you talking about?"

"Terri thinks it was a dream last night. Both Grandma and I know better. She was looking through mother's eyes."

"So what? They shared a dream, or a nightmare?"

"No, worse than that. It's small now, but it will likely create a deviation that will spiral much worse in the past."

"But your mother has no idea. She wouldn't approve."

"No, she wouldn't. But she has no idea I'm here, talking to you either."

"Lexi, you know what this means?" Jenni asked hesitantly.

"I am well aware, but I would rather have it this way."

"So you don't have much time left then, do you?"

"Very little and there is much to be done."

"What do I need to do?"

"You're going to take Terri home and when you pull into the driveway, she'll wake up not remembering anything you said to her about running away."

"She's going to still be mad at me."

"It will have to do for now. She'll get over it. Right now, she has forgiveness in spades."

"Does your grandmother know what's going on?"

"No," Lexi prompted, "and I would prefer it if you didn't let her in on this. I am telling you so you stay away."

"I can't do that. I want to be there when it happens."

"When what happens?" asked Lexi.

Jenni sighed, "When you disappear forever."
 
 

~*~
 
 
To Be Continued...
 
 
End of Chapter Fourteen

Synopsis: Just a normal day for a normal person in a normal universe... not! Terri confronts herself again but soon learns that she didn't need to.
 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane
 
edited by Sephrena Miller
 
Chapter Fifteen

The Last Normal Day, Part 1

 

---

 
 
Terri's alarm started its piercing chirp, marking the required effect it took to wake her up, except Terri got up out of her chair where she had finished her homework and shut it off.

Having the alarm remind her again of the time sparked Terri to go over the events of last night in her head.

Despite how badly she felt dinner had gone, what with a pronounced silence during and after the whole meal, Terri felt as though some headway had been made, if not in the direction Jenni had hoped.

Terri had spent much of the night, trying to concentrate on her homework, but constantly thinking back to what Jenni had been so vehement about.

Their exchange had left Terri wondering. During the last nine days, the last thing on her mind had been staying female. She could still hear her own voice echoing through her mind.

"Some days... I want to."

She couldn't fathom why she had blurted it out, but each time she thought about it, it only angered her more.

Did she really mean what she said? Last Friday, she would have certainly said no, but now she wasn't so sure anymore.

Was it the new hormones, the attention, or did the near orgasm in the tub flip the switch?

She had begun to second guess herself and it had made her angry.
 
 
After plowing through her homework, so she could just focus on her thoughts, she had spent the last few hours weighing her opinion, until the clock had broken her train of thought.

As she sat back down so she could toss her books into her bag, she sighed.
 
 
She could change back at any time.
 
     She would still be loved.
 
          The only thing that had changed was, in fact, her.
 
 
Jenni was right though, she had changed. Gone was the somber, quiet, little person who was trying to be invisible. What had replaced it, was still evolving and even Terri wasn't quite sure how different she would become.

But she told herself that just the new personality alone shouldn't determine what she should be.

Despite repeated insistence on wanting to be a boy, when she discovered how, she only used twice. It was like the feeling that what 'He'had expected to feel and experience as a male just wasn't there anymore. There was no, sudden, euphoric high, complete with angelic chorus. Something, however, had made itself apparent. But it was not what 'he' had expected.
 
 
Terri turned and got up out of her chair so she could stand in front of her mirror. She cupped her breasts through the suit for a moment, as if she was weighing them, before her hands dropped to her sides again.

There was a long pause as she fidgeted in place, continuing to stare at herself.

"Jenni may be right, I've changed," Terri said aloud. "But I can still be happy, even like this."

There was another long pause before she spoke again.

"This... this is what I want to be, for now."
 
 
Terri sighed again, closing her eyes and breathing deeply and slowly. It had been so hard to admit, even if was only to herself.

Thanks to her Grandmother's meddling with a charm spell, she had felt forced at first, what with everyone she knew thinking she was always female. Now, it finally felt like a choice she could make for herself.

"Now I just need to be able to say it when other people are listening."

With the figurative weight off her shoulders, attention turned to the more literal mass she was carrying, her breasts.

"So, it’s just going to be the three of us for awhile. I hope you don't make me regret this decision."

Looking back into the mirror, Terri decided that she wanted a different look and the suit happily obeyed.

The sleeves retracted into the shoulders and the upper chest faded until it was like a fine black mesh, allowing some view of her cleavage. It remained opaque around the breasts themselves, so as not to show too much.

The black bodysuit continued down to the feet as usual, where it then formed the "abomination boots" as her mother had called them.

The suit fluttered wings that folded around her, then fell into place as a vest and a loose skirt.

Satisfied with her appearance, she strolled over to her desk and pushed her books off the side, into her backpack.

Throwing it over her shoulder, she stepped in front of the mirror once last time, angrily messed up her hair with her free hand only to watch intently as it untangled itself and fell back neatly into place. She had already ceased to be amazed by the phenomenon, but watching it occur was still interesting enough.
 
 

~*~
 
 
As she hit the bottom of the stairs, she could hear conversation in the kitchen.

Terri stepped in to find Martha arguing with Lexi about magic.

"You could very well do magic," admitted Martha with a scowl. "It's quite obvious that you have potential."

Lexi shook her head. "I am not interested in magic lessons, I am sorry."

Terri snickered. "She isn't interested because she already knows," she remarked absently as she sat down.

It took only a moment for her thoughts to clear and for her to realize what she had just said. She turned to look at the two of them.

Martha was staring back at her, shock written upon her face. "What do you mean, she already knows?"

Terri was as confused as Martha was. "Uhm, I have no idea where that came from. I really don't."

It was at that moment that she felt compelled to finger the necklace that lay against her chest.

Terri noticed Lexi staring at her, a spark of recognition in her eye.

"What's wrong?" Terri asked, "Did I miss my mouth with the spoon already? I just sat down for gosh sakes."

"Sorry, I just can't help myself," Lexi said. "That caught me a bit out of left field."

"Not to break topic or anything," her mother interrupted. "Cindy called. It's a spirit day and I'm sorry I forgot to tell you before you dressed, unfortunately. You are supposed to wear your uniform today and prepare to be wishing the basketball team good luck all day."

"At least it's the girl’s team," Terri said. "I won't be expected to be giving any boys kisses on the cheek."

"You make it sound like you wouldn't enjoy it," Lexi teased.

"Are we talking about kissing girls, or boys here?" asked Terri's mother.

"Both," Lexi responded.

"Hey now," Terri started to complain. " When did everyone around here become so comfortable with everything that happened? Did you all sit down and powwow last night?"

Lexi answered quickly and matter-of-factly, "Yes, actually. Since they were following you, they knew we knew and so last night we had a discussion about it. It'll make it much easier to deal with you if everyone is on the same footing."

"Quite," replied Martha. "We also don't have to hide our magic abilities anymore."

"Goody, now I've got a whole house to criticize me when I don't portray my chosen gender properly."

There was a pause before three other people nearly jumped at her asking, "You mean you finally decided?!"

"Whaddya mean 'Finally,'?" Terri snapped back.

Terri watched Lexi look back and forth between two flushed adults, both turning red and too flustered to say anything.

"Well, since neither of them have the guts to say it, I will." Lexi groaned out.

"Terri, don't be alarmed, but when we say finally, it's because all of us already knew this was coming. It was really only a matter of time."

"Everyone already knows?" Terri exclaimed.

"I can go as far as saying that even your new friends had some suspicion, all from observing and interacting with you."

So you are saying is that I'm as easy to read as a book?"

On this matter anyway," replied Lexi. "I speculate that your quick acceptance of your new gender is likely caused by the advantages the stereotype affords."

"Like what?" Terri asked rather cynically.

"How many football players brush each other's hair? How many times do you find them breaking down and crying in each other's arms because they are emotionally exhausted?"

"Well, maybe not here, but I'm not sure about San Francisco though," Retorted Terri.

"As a boy, you wouldn't get help like your friends gave this you. You'd probably be handed a knife and told to go take your whining out on bunnies in the woods or something."
 
 
Terri's mother stepped around the Kitchen Island, snaking arms around her daughter from behind and pulling her into a gentle hug.

"Like this for instance," She said softly. "My brother would run off and be alone when he was upset. He and my mother barely talked after he turned sixteen."

Terri lifted her own arm up, covering one of her mother's hands. With her back toward the others, no one saw the tear form in her eye and streak down her cheek. She said nothing.

"Your life has completely turned around because of your grandmother. It's so much better and in so many ways... that with all the new experiences and sensations along with the charm spell confusing people about your old gender that you would have to be a fool not to take advantage of this opportunity."

"So this is just an experiment?" Terri whined.

"No," quipped Lexi quickly. "It is what it is - a choice. It was made in spirit well before you acknowledged it consciously."

"Are you sure it isn't just female hormones like Allyssa told me about last Monday?" Terri asked.

"It isn't female to just want to be held or want to be loved. It's Human." interrupted Martha.

"To allow yourself to be loved, while exploring a new side of yourself?" Lexi added, with a pause, "Is growing up."

"That made no sense whatsoever," responded Terri, with a hint of irritability. "You are saying that I wasn’t looking for acceptance from them because I already had it?"

"It was the acceptance from us, Correct." Lexi said.

"Damn, you have a way of getting into my brain like nobody with a can opener ever could," Terri said.

"Anyway, I'm done with breakfast," Lexi added as she walked away, "I'm going to go lay down for a nap. I didn't get much sleep last night. Call me if you need any more psychoanalyzing."

Terri looked at her watch, cursed softly under her breath at the time she had wasted, finished her breakfast, grabbed her bag and dropped her bowl in the sink. "Thanks Mom, I gotta get going."

Terri was next to Martha, headed out the door, when she momentarily paused.

"You might not have noticed, and possibly even forgot due to my self-exposing interlude, that even though I was talking out my arse about magic, Lexi didn't deny I was right, did she?" she added as she passed through the doorway.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Having returned from her bedroom where she had redressed and used the bathroom for obvious reasons, she was finally on her way to school.

Now the suit, hidden under the cheer costume, was a brilliant white down her legs, dipping into sneakers that bore no logo except a blue pinstripe that started and ended on either side of the arch and, when viewed from above, resembled the outline of a teardrop.

Waiting at the sidewalk, by leaning against a tree, was Allyssa in full Goth attire. She smiled as she saw Terri strolling down the walk to meet her.

"Spirit day, huh?" Allyssa asked rhetorically.

"Like, just wearing this makes me so much perkier," Terri answered with just a hint of sarcasm, though the smile never left her face.

"So, how was your date?" Allyssa asked. "I got stuck watching my little brother last night so my watch went to someone else."

"No time to view the official report?" Terri asked, with the sarcasm still flowing easily, through she had lost the valley accent.

"I suppose you're hoping this goes down as soon as possible, aren't you?" Allyssa asked.

"Do you mean this probably awkward, embarrassment-filled day where I get to be the subject of a four-year-olds case study in gender evaluation, or the other major event where I get used like the energizer bunny, only to get squashed flat like a bug?"

"Uhm, the latter," Allyssa admonished, "But without the squishing part, but I guess having your mother babysit a genius makes things a little tough."

"To say the least."

"So, what is this gender evaluation stuff you were talking about."

"Ally, I'm going full time."
 
 
Allyssa said nothing, just nodded her head at first in quiet agreement.

"Anything to add?" asked Terri.

"I have nothing that would come without it sounding insensitive," Allyssa replied slowly.

"Lexi was right, you knew too!" Terri exclaimed. "Am I the last person to know that I, myself, had already made up my mind?"

Again Allyssa said nothing.

"Holy shit! I'm so transparent. I must be just a shade this side of invisible, you can see through me like a window pane."
 
 
Allyssa stopped, prompting Terri to do the same. Terri was frustrated, but not angry at her. She thought to herself how difficult it would be for anyone to respond to her questions in a caring manner.

Her mental processes were interrupted as Allyssa embraced her quickly and without warning.

"You aren't a window pane, you're a person. A little shy, confused, but the most courageous person I know."

"Oh...kay?"

"No, I'm serious. I can tell you're scared about this, but you said it and I know you mean it. You come to school last Monday, intent on not letting this get to you, despite how you felt all weekend. You easily agreed to help catch and-or beat the stuffing out of those rapists. I'm sorry that it means you'll have to wear that uniform twice a week for the rest of the year."

"It's alright," Terri replied. "It could be worse."

"Well, you want to try being Goth on the off days then? A little attempt at trying out more new things?"

"No offense, but I like you better when your clothes aren't trying to rebel against the invention of color television."

"None taken, but I am totally going to remember that line for later. It will give me an 'A' in Lit class."

"How will that get you a better grade?" Terri asked.

"Well, my teacher likes seeing things through, as he puts it, 'New Eyes'. I'm sure he'd have a field day if he knew about you."

"If you expect me to react favorably to that statement, you're sadly mistaken."

"Well, here's something that I hope you Do react to," Allyssa said, just before placing her hands on either side of Terri's face and planting a long kiss on her lips.

She was smiling as she pulled away, moving further down the sidewalk, having stunned Terri speechless and frozen in place.

"Snap out of that soon or you'll be late!" Allyssa shouted back with a smile.

Terri could only touch her fingers to her lips, mesmerized by the softness of Allyssa's lips. The actual feeling having been lost the first time, since she had used it to transfer mana and that sensation had been entirely different.

Now, she was relishing the ginger tingling that was left over - the gentle fleeting taste of anise that could only have come from Allyssa's black lipstick, mixed with the powder smell of her light blush. Allyssa could see that Terri had yet to snap out of it yet, so she ran over, took her hand and teleported them both into the janitor's closet again.
 
 
"Are you going to be okay?" Allyssa asked. "You act like we've never kissed."

"You said you were hoping I would react, but now you seem surprised that I did."

"Well, I wasn't expecting you to shut down completely."

"And yes, we never kissed like that before, or did you forget?"

"True, the first time was you on me and I was the one being kissed."

"I was recharging you," Terri said.

"Call it what you want, but to me, you were coming on to me," Allyssa cooed softly.

Terri began to blush, but kept her eyes on Allyssa and as soon as she turned around, swept the smaller girl into a tight squeeze.

"Please don't take this the wrong way, but I like you as a person."

"I like you as a friend, Terri. Friends sometimes rib each other, but are always there for each other. I only wish that I could have found you earlier so that I could have helped."

Terri could feel the warmth Allyssa radiated as she put her hands on Terri's.

"Do you mean it?"

"Absolutely!"

"I'll remember that."
 
 

~*~
 
 
The slow grind of the school day made it seem like it was taking forever to end in Terri's opinion, mostly because she was getting asked for good luck kisses from the team girls between classes all morning. It was either the slightly toothy smirk she gave them or else by word of mouth that she was in a harmless, yet evil mood that kept anyone from asking twice. She wasn't complaining.

She had forgotten to make lunch the night before so found herself in the line for school lunch. Surprisingly, the grilled cheese sandwiches and sweet corn sounded pleasant to her fickle tastebuds.

She left the line, and turned toward her usual table, getting only a few feet before remembering that she should set with the rest of the pep squad.

As she approached, Naomi saw her coming, and a place was squeezed out for her.

"So, what's everyone doing?" Terri asked, trying to strike up conversation as she sat down.

"We were discussing you actually," Cindy said. "Allyssa caught me after second period and told me you had a secret for me."

Terri blushed. "I'm scared of what you will think of me. I'm not sure how to say this in a way that won't sound stupid."

"Just take a deep breath and let it go," Cindy said.

"I.. I've decided to remain female for awhile," Terri let out.

Several looks were exchanged before a few small giggles escaped, causing Terri to sigh, blushing even redder than before.

"Are you serious? Does everyone know?"

"Yes and no," one girl replied. "You've only been a girl for a week yet you keep showing the outside world how more and more comfortable you are in the role. We didn't know for sure, but we had a little bet going."

"So, welcome to the better sex - sisterhood! We hope you enjoy your stay!" said another girl, whom Terri didn't recall her name. "Please observe the no smoking signs until you have completely exited the terminal."

"I really don't get it," Naomi said. "I don't really understand why you have to be coming to school like this in the first place."

Terri sighed. "I guess I never have told any of you the full story. Okay, as best I can tell, when I was born, I was going to be a pretty powerful magic user. But I'd also likely be made into someone's mindless slave and die horribly from the battle that this guy would cause, so Grandma took away my power, sealing it up."

"It didn't work well though and yesterday I found out that I was actually growing up into two different genders, like barber pole stripes across my body. If either of my stripes had been six inches wider, I would have had one of these tits already and no dick."

"Freaky," Said one girl. "But she had to fix you up, cause you can't seriously grow up like a Frankenstein’s monster?"

"Yeah, but she needed me to be noticed by magic users, so instead of just fixing me into a boy, she did This," she said as she gestured toward her chest and the rest of her in general. "She created the other spell, so that I'd have no choice but to go to school, or anywhere else, like this, so that no one would realize what's wrong."

"Except people whom she wanted to know?" Naomi asked.

"Yup, but now all of you do too, yet you all can sit here with me, knowing full well that I am what I really am."

"If you were truly growing up as two genders then some part of you has always been female. We'd be poor examples of our gender if, now that you are fully female, we shunned you or freaked out."

"That and maybe if we act more like decent young ladies, maybe some of our softness might rub off on you," Cindy said with a smile. "You may have the body, the voice and the heart, but your personality is still quite rough."

Terri hung her head a little. "I'm just not used to attention. It's going to my head."

"You do not need to be feeling bad for being a beautiful, attractive person who everyone wants to get to know," Cindy said.

"Get to know the slit between my legs you mean," interrupted Terri. "With the exception of all of you, everyone else that has talked to me isn't interested in being my friend."

"What about Allyssa?" Cindy asked.

"At first, all I got from her was sympathy and a mild interest in me. It's started to change, but I can't help but feel that there are other motives driving her."

"Hey, how did we get sidetracked again," Cindy said, with fervor. "Now, we need to eat before this period runs out. If there is any time left, we'll discuss this more."
 
 
Terri looked at her sandwich, lifted up one of the triangular halves and intended to stuff it into her mouth with zeal, until her eyes met the four faces on the other side of the table who were watching her, their mix of disgust, amusement and disapproval stopped her.

She took a smaller bite, something that barely felt like it was there, while gauging their reactions.

"Better, now chew before swallowing." Naomi reminded her.

Terri did as she was told, then started to work on the rest of it. It was more time consuming than her usual way of eating, but it meant that she wouldn't have to keep talking to, or be talked to.

Suddenly, the girl next to her took her milk, passing it to her left, and it went around the table. Terri tried to reach out and grab it, but they were already planning and were faster.

"Hey, Give that back!" Terri said as she forced the currently small bite into one cheek and spoke with her teeth nearly clenched.

She watched it continue around the table, nearly missing the exchange as one girl dropped it onto her try, substituting it for her own and that milk made it way the rest of the trip back.

"We're just teasing you."

Terri looked the new milk, "This one is chocolate. Mine wasn't," she said as she held it back toward the girl who had made the swap.

"You're saying you don't want chocolate milk?" Cindy asked.

"With grilled cheese and corn? You've got to be kidding."

"Never thought I'd hear a boy complain about getting chocolate milk."

"I have very sensitive taste buds and I know what tastes good together. Corn and chocolate don't mix, and I'm only a boy somewhere between my heart and body now."
 
 

~*~
 
 
Cindy found Terri and Allyssa before they had left the building, so now they were again riding in Cindy's car, but just to the short trip home.

Terri felt a tinge of jealousy toward Cindy, who had a car when she did not. this wasn't a boy-thing, just a personal freedom thing.

"Oh, by the way Terri," Cindy broke the silence as she waited at a stoplight. "Since you missed the sleepover Friday night, I have some gifts for you in my trunk."

"Oh, well thanks."

"Okay, on to something more serious. Were you telling the truth at lunch? Why did you tell the squad that you were going to die?"

"It's the truth, I swear," Terri insisted.

"You told her?" Allyssa barked.

"Well, it just kind of escaped at lunch. I don't really know what came over me." Terri protested.

"Enough you two, my question still has no answer. Who is trying to kill Terri?"

Terri listened intently as Allyssa relayed to Cindy the tale of what a vortex was and how the last one died, then added that Terri was the newest vortex and the speculation of Terri's Grandmother's plan to keep her alive.

"Whoa, and she has been dead for how long now?" Cindy asked, this time in an almost speculative manner.

"Too long," replied Terri in a manner befitting someone mourning.
 
 
Terri buried herself in her thoughts, unaware of the exchange that Allyssa and Cindy were having the in front seat.

She still had so many questions to ask of her grandmother, but sure she wouldn't get them.

"Hey, miss crabby panties," Cindy said as she looked into the back seat from the rear-view mirror. "Don't get any emo on my back seat huh?"

"Sorry, I didn't realize I was bleeding moroseness, let me find something to stop the flow. Got any brain-pons?"

"Hey, that's not a joking matter," Allyssa said. "You haven't had your first period yet."

"But I will," Terri replied. "Sooner rather than later."

"So what made you decide?" Cindy asked, trying to derail the train of thought.

"Last night, Jenni knew after a few minutes. I hadn't even thought that you two, or everyone else, might have already figured it out. I was just fighting this whole battle with myself, all by myself.

"Hey hey, don't talk like that. This isn't a fight here. We're not trying to make you change sides here," Allyssa retorted. "We would both likely be okay if you resented having to be a girl, even to the point of wanting to skip school or hide from your parents so you could spend more time being male. It's just..."

"Just what?" Terri interrupted Allyssa's pause.

"It's just that you don't," Cindy calmly answered as she turned the wheel and pulled into Terri's driveway.

"She's right," Allyssa said. "You don't act like you resent it. You talk the good talk, but you walk in a whole different direction."

Terri got out of the car, narrowly avoiding Cindy as she walked past on her way to the trunk and peeked around the open lid to see nearly a dozen shopping bags filled with clothing.

"Grab some handles and we'll get all these in on one trip," Cindy said as she motioned to the contents of the trunk.

"Nice haul," Allyssa said. "This must have set the squad back a grand or two."

"Actually," Cindy admitted, "we went through our collective closets for stuff we weren't wearing but that we thought Terri would look good in."

"Does this mean I have to sit through a montage of trying on everything,"

"People don't sit through montages. That's what Hollywood does so that the audience doesn't have to watch them change clothes, or go from the set to their personal trailers for double mocha espressos."

"Plus I wouldn't want to do all that clothing changes,"

Cindy smiled. "Tell you what, we arranged everything in matching sets. Just pick out a set each day and wear it. You'll make someone really happy."

"You think they will all fit me?" Terri asked.

"Absolutely," Cindy said. "You may be a little taller than any of us, but your hips aren't terribly wide so skirts should always fit."

"So terribly wide?" Terri said. "Did I hear you right?"

"No, what I meant was that unlike myself and many other random girls in this wide world, your hips aren't so wide that you can't fit into regular jeans and have to get them two sizes larger."

"The only downside is that it also makes your waistline less pronounced," Allyssa added. "Though if you are trying not to be noticeable to guys, it's probably a good thing."

"Okay, what the heck is the deal with hips anyway?"

"Wide hips are better for carrying and birthing of babies, stupid!" cracked Allyssa. "You can always change them later, if you want to have kids."

Terri only made a face, sticking out her tongue and screwing up her features.

"Now that we have that straightened out, let’s get these inside," Cindy replied with a smile.
 
 

~*~
 
 
To Be Continued...
 
 
End of Chapter Fifteen

Synopsis: Terri prepares herself for the final showdown!
Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane
edited by Sephrena Miller
Chapter Sixteen

The Last Normal Day, Part 2

---

"You can what?"

"I said," Cindy repeated for the third time, not having convinced the room on the previous two attempts, "I can do magic!"

"But how?" Allyssa snapped.

"The feeling Terri gave me on Saturday, the one deep in my tummy. After we left here, I tried to invis myself again. I felt that feeling leave doing it, but when I woke up the next morning, it had returned."

"I can't believe it," Allyssa stated, dumbfounded.

"What's the big deal?" Terri asked. "Every time I do magic I get that feeling."

"Yeah, but she shouldn't," added Cathryn. "Apparently you just made her into a user."

"Wow, really?" Cindy exclaimed.

"Well, it did feel like most of the mana I was giving kinda bled back out into the air. It wasn't like I kissed Allyssa. It was much tougher just to get any to hold."

"Interesting," Cathryn said.

"It wasn't my idea!" Terri remarked, trying to pass the blame, "Lexi told me to do it!"

"Don't blame young children for your problems," Cindy scolded with a waving finger. "Even if she is smarter than you."

Terri wanted to get angry over this statement, directed at her intelligence.

In the span of less than a second, her mind visualized an event where Allyssa and Cindy both shouted random mathematical equations and Lexi would be attempting to answer them before she herself would interrupt faster with the correct answer.

She wasn't even aware she had zoned out of the conversation until Lexi walked over and took her hand.

This broke her train of thought, sending the passenger cars into the ravine, so to speak.

"Uhm, are you okay?" Cindy asked, sounding quite concerned.

"She just went daydreaming for a moment," Lexi answered. "Probably someplace where she isn't compared to me."

"Something like that," replied Terri. "Though I'm sure if I described it to you, you'd find some way to get there and take it over."

"Never," Lexi said. "Did you know that while you zoned out, you were smiling ever so slightly? You smile, genuinely smile, so infrequently that I'd never take away its cause."

"As sweet as that sounded, it nearly made me vomit." Terri said, motioning down her throat with a finger.

"Cut that out!" Cindy said. "You sound like an eight-year old Boy!" she exclaimed.

"Don't say that too loud or in front of the wrong people or some of the real pervs will be after her," Allyssa said. "Try simply telling her how immature and unladylike that was."

“Hey!" Terri interrupted, "I may have said I planned to look this way, but I never said anything about acting like one."

"It's a package deal, you can't choose what part or parts of being female you want to use and which parts you will throw away."

"Like either of you two are real paragons of 'Typical' female behavior."
 
 
Cindy and Allyssa both turned to look at the two sources of the same exact quote.

Even Terri had surprised herself, having cupped her hand over her mouth while watching Lexi's stunned expression.

"That was just creepy," Cindy said. "How'd you two do that?"

"No idea," replied Terri. "I think we just happened to be saying the same thing."

"It wouldn't be so bad if you two didn't look so much alike," Allyssa added. "Anyone who didn't know would think you were mother and daughter."
 
 
Terri was going to say something snarky, but was interrupted by Lexi musing out loud, "I wish Terri WAS my mother."

"Why would you say that?"

Lexi just looked at them both with a look of total innocence. "Because she treats me like her little sister."

Before any retort could be made, Terri scooped up Lexi from in front of her and had her in her lap.

"I think... I wish I could have a kid just like you."

Terri couldn't see Lexi's face, but even while clearing the tears, she was shaking her head.

"I'm sorry, but that just isn't possible. Not if I have my way," Lexi said.

"Why not?!" Terri snapped back. "You want me to be a girl, but now I can't have children if I wanted?"

Lexi wrenched herself out of Terri's grasp, dropped to the floor and fled from the room, saying only, "You don't understand."
 
 
"Uhm, well," Cathryn interrupted the awkward moment, "Not to change the subject or anything, but the council is on their way over."

"What do they want?" Terri snapped, annoyed. She wanted to run after Lexi, to hold the girl and promise her the world to make her happy. But something inside her stopped her. A feeling she couldn't explain, told her to stop.

"The Council would like you to voluntarily submit to a series of trap spells," Cathryn replied, watching Terri's expression."

"What will they do to me?"

"For one, any spells you DO know how to cast will go off wildly, that or explode in your face with colorful but harmless showers of sparks."

"Oh don't forget the mana sinks," Allyssa added. "The same reason that ol' stink bottom wants you, we figure that we will overcome your regen rate and it'll make him run out too."

"You going to be there too Ally?" Terri asked, only half-listening. "You should get in on that mana thingy."

"I want to be there too Terri," Cindy added. "You're my friend now and I may be able to help."

"If you want to help, Cindy," Terri replied. "Maybe my mother's old friends can teach you some magic. They thought they were here for me, but it'll do you more good."

"We didn't sign up for that," Cathryn protested.

"But you will do it," came Augustine's voice preceding her entrance into the room. "Allyssa and her coven as well. We'll need everyone we can spare on this."
 
 
Terri watched Augustine, both out of fear and respect. This woman had authority and did not fear using it.

"Are you seriously considering sending Children into battle against that bastard and whoever is willingly following him, do you?" Cathryn snapped back, standing up to confront Augustine's presence.

"Their elevated emotions will enhance their spell's impact," Augustine replied

"With only a greater chance of backfiring!" snapped Cathryn again. "What you are asking of these girls is possible suicide!"

"Nothing I would not commit to myself," Augustine deadpanned, and then turned to Allyssa. "Are you willing to be part of this?"

"I am," Allyssa answered.

"So am I," Cindy added.
 
 
Augustine turned toward the cheerleader with interest. "I was under the impression that you weren't a user."

Terri watched Cindy try to posture herself courageously, as Augustine stared her down. "Due to events that occurred this weekend, it would appear that a vortex has enough mana to force certain pathways to open and I was made one." Cindy said.

"Interesting,"

"Oh, I should also mention," Allyssa began, interrupting Augustine. "That Terri has an effect on regular users too. When she pushed mana into me last week, she overflowed, so using Cindy's comment as reference, my 'pathways' were widened and I have almost forty percent more by my estimation."

"How does this 'Push' happen exactly?" Augustine asked with one eyebrow raised.

She looked back and forth between Allyssa, Cindy and Terri, who were all blushing, and appeared to come to her own conclusion.

"Oh, do not tell me it involves sexual congress of some type," Augustine sighed, putting her hand across her eyes.

"Just kissing actually," Cindy managed to squeak out, trying desperately to defend her actions.

"Well, that pretty much leaves out repeating the process on me," Augustine commented.
 
 
Terri was still sitting in the periphery, at least figuratively. It was something she had not experienced recently. She was able to intently watch the goings on and had managed to contribute very little if anything since Augustine's arrival.

"So what do I have to do?" Terri asked, deciding that silence might actually commit her to something painful.

Terri was scared, but she didn't want to die. As she looked into Augustine's eyes, she sensed that that the older woman could see through her and knew the fear she was having.

"Terri, why don't you and I go for a walk together?" Augustine asked, holding old her hand.

Terri took it, then there was a popping noise behind her, causing Terri to look around, only to find they were no longer at her house, but on a beach somewhere in Hawaii, as best as Terri figured.
 
 
"Uhm, where are we?" Terri asked.

"You don't recognize the beach? Before they filmed the Seventh season of 'Survivor' down here, I used to come here all the time."

"You're just making all that up," Terri replied, looking the least bit skeptical.

"Seriously, look over there," Augustine said, pointing to a circle of stones and a lean-to shelter that had been abandoned.

"Whoa, so why'd you bring me here?"

"Well, I can tell you have some reservations about the plan," Augustine said as she lifted a foot to take off her shoe.

"Yeah, if Allyssa hadn't mentioned how many times I have been compared to the witch under Dorothy’s farmhouse."

"Ahh, so you know the story then," she said with a sigh. "Would it make you feel better to learn that eight other people were all launching spear-based attacks at the same time and mine was the 'Lucky Shot', as it were?"

"No, that doesn't help much," Terri replied. "Sorry."

You know that this 'event' goes down in the next couple days, right?"

"Yeah, it's tough trying to ignore the inevitable," Terri replied.

"You want to switch to something more beach- friendly?"
 
 
Terri turned to inquire as to the nature of the last comment, only to find Augustine had lost her blouse and slacks and was wearing a sun dress and a large floppy hat. Her fingers were ready to snap and Terri figured it was a spell.

"Ahh, no thanks." Terri said. "My suit might be mad if I get you to change me."

Terri saw the look on Augustine's face as she kissed her own shoulder. It took a moment of rearranging and a slight drop in height while the suit reclaimed her boots and became a one-piece tank swimsuit and a gauzy cover up.
 
 
"You have a symbiote suit?" she asked.

"A gift from Allyssa," Terri commented. "Though I haven't met another so I can grow one for her in return."

Augustine nodded. "Nice work, by the way. You must have a photographic memory. You don't normally see that level of detail. You were spending a bit of time looking at pretty girls on the internet before this happened, didn't you?"

Terri just blushed and nodded. "But it wasn't for the reasons other boys do, at least, I don't think it was, not anymore anyways."

"I suspect as such," Augustine said with a chuckle. "Back to the reason I brought you here and away from everyone else."

"Terri," she continued, "Your Grandmother was my best friend and it hurts to think that she hid her ability from me all that time."

"Why would she do it?" Terri asked. "I don't understand what the big deal is."

"No, I suppose not," replied Augustine. "I suppose she thought I would turn her in."

"Turn her in?" Terri asked. "For what?"

"A precognitive of her ability would have been in high demand and the last three with even half of Agatha's power were made to shape events around the world. It is basically the worst government job possible. She hid it so she would have a life."

"Would you have turned her in?"

Augustine turned and toward the surf. She waited several seconds before answering.

"Come walk with me," she said and Terri caught up with her and they began strolling barefoot down the beach.
 
 
"The world that we live in is full of lies and half-truths. Do you know that, to the government, I am a podiatrist?"

"A foot... doctor?"

"Yes, being on the council pays money, money which is collected from taxes. Taxes that everyone, user or not, pays."

"How can that be?" Terri asked. "How could they acknowledge the existence of magic?"

"They don't. They just have funds from the general operating expenses earmarked toward 'Enforcement, detention and cleanup.' Since users are few and rarely step out of line in a way that requires our direct intervention, we find ourselves with time to research new spell variations."

"But back to your earlier question, would I have turned her in? When I was young and rash, I did many things that I now regret. I stepped on a lot of toes trying to climb up the ranks. I guess she must have seen me do it, or else she would have told me."

"Oh," was all Terri could say.

"All that changed thirty years ago," Augustine went on to say. "The last vortex changed my life forever."

"How come?"

"Well, because I killed the last vortex. And then I was told that his family had tried to keep him hidden away. Your grandmother wept for days, but I could not console her in any way. She charged me with keeping that secret."

"That's why she has been manipulating things to keep you alive," continued Augustine. "Because the only thing worse than losing your child and being unable to stop it, is to watch your child lose theirs."

Tears were welling up in Terri's eyes, the idea too painful to imagine.
 
 
"Do you get it?" Augustine quietly demanded. "The only two people on this planet that know the truth, stand here, on this beach, right now."

"The... Last vortex, was... my Uncle?"

"His name was Andrew, and yes, he would have been."

"Agatha told me; so that I could understand the pain she was going through. I demanded we check your mother to make sure she wasn't a vortex as well. But in return, she made me promise to keep her secret about whose child the vortex was and to keep her daughter out of our world. I made that promise and I have kept it until now."

"So, why are you telling me all this?" Terri asked.

"Because Agatha wants you to live and I intend not to disappoint her."
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri stood in the middle of the Council's library, while Augustine, Allyssa, Cindy, the rest of the Council and Terri's boarders stood on the other side of the room facing her. The table had been whisked away, leaving a large open area, perfect for what they were about to do next.
 
 
"So what do I have to do?" asked Terri, showing only a little boredom.

"I am sorry for what you are about to feel," Beatrice said as she opened the scroll she had been holding and began the spell.

As the spell went off, Terri felt like she had been punched in the gut. She doubled over and collapsed to the floor with a noise that mimicked being shot. She assumed the fetal position in only a moment, gasping for air.

"Terri!" screamed both Allyssa and Cindy, as they watched their friend hit the tiles.

"What the Hell did you do to her?" Cindy brazenly demanded of Beatrice. "How come you didn't warn her?"
 
 
But Allyssa hadn't even made half the distance, when Terri's hand slammed against the tile, and she began lifting herself off the floor.

With gritted teeth, Terri said, "Ugh! That was unexpected." She tried to smile, but she knew it looked forced.

"Are you okay?" Allyssa asked, grabbing a shoulder to help her to her feet again.

Terri waved her off by saying, "If all of them are going to be that strong, I best not stand up."

Allyssa wouldn't let it go through, but she turned back toward the group with a hate-filled expression, needing answers.

"Why the hell are we using something so powerful?"

"So that it will have the greatest effect," was Beatrice's answer. "That is the most refined version of the sink we have. It should be able to drain a normal user in three or four seconds."

Terri nodded. "I can feel a pull, like something is tied me to someone over there. It's not bad, just strange."

"Really, do we need to put her through that each time though?" Augustine asked. "She is still a child."

"Well," said Beatrice, only to be interrupted by Terri. "Do it!" she stammered back. "The pain is already going away. I'll be ready for the next shot in a moment."
 
 
In reality, her nerves were still sending signals that she was being burned alive, but Terri refused to let it faze her.
Allyssa stomped over toward Beatrice, peeling the scroll out of the other woman's hands. "This is torture, you can't possibly ask anyone to do this!"

"Allyssa," Terri said. "You and Cindy might want to use it now, so you can leave right away."

Allyssa turned to look at Terri, shock in her eyes. "You can't be serious?"

"Just do it," Terri said. "I've been through worse before and I am still here. Do it, before I change my mind."

Allyssa held the scroll off to Cindy, who just looked at it. "Oh, no way are you making me hurt her first."

Allyssa sighed and unrolled it, closing her eyes as she fought back tears; she blinked several times before reading the words aloud.
 
 
Terri once again felt the invisible fist in the stomach, but this time she recovered quickly, only straining out a growl, her knees already on the pavement, so she bucked forward and her hands hit the tile once more.

Terri could hear Allyssa sniffling her nose on the other side of the room, but she closed her eyes and said aloud with a wheeze, "NEXT!"

"Let's take a break," said Augustine. "We didn't plan for the toll it was going to take on Terri, or us."

"No!" Terri snapped. "I'll rest when we're done, or I'm dead, dammit!"

Cindy was shaking her head. "I can't, I can't do it..."

Allyssa looked at Augustine. "She'll pass out after this one, I'm sure of it."

"What's taking so damn long?" Terri growled again. "My vision has nearly cleared up. Cindy take that scroll!"

Terri could barely make out Cindy's form from the mass of people in front of her. She watched as Cindy was handed the scroll so Terri closed her eyes to await the next painful slam.

She was not disappointed as the last word escaped Cindy's lips and she saw stars as the violent, invisible attack once again used Terri as a punching bag.
 
 
She couldn't even hear Cindy crying out as she ran for her, the sound of her own heartbeat ringing too loudly in her ears.

Terri felt the shocking, wracking sensation subsiding quickly, as if she was recovering faster this time.

She felt hands on her as both Cindy and Allyssa picked her off the floor and onto her knees again.

"You two should go," Terri said wearily. "I'll be fine. I'll recover afterward."

"No," said Allyssa, "We're not leaving you here alone."

"I promised I wouldn't hurt you again and I broke it," Cindy let go with a sob. "I can't go, knowing you'll be writhing in pain on the floor."
 
 
Terri looked up at Cindy, her eyes unable to focus. "Please, just go," she said. She did not want her friends to see her like this. In truth, she knew she had felt worse. Years of constant suffering had hardened her to the point where this new sensation was hardly bothering her. But she did not want them to take pity on her.

"Just Go!" Terri shouted, jerking her arms away from both girls.

Suddenly there was a blinding flash to right, followed by her legs regaining strength, her vision clearing up and all instances of pain seeming to melt away.
 
 
Terri turned to her right, to find Allyssa looking down at her hands with eyes that were white and glowing, devoid of iris or pupil.

"What's what's happening to me?" Allyssa shrieked.

"Bollocks!" screeched Augustine. "She's become a Spirit Caster!"
 
 

~*~
 
 
To Be Continued...
 
 
End of Chapter Sixteen

Synopsis: There are some days when it just doesn't pay to get out of bed... especially when you are being hunted down!
Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane
edited by Sephrena Miller
Chapter Seventeen

Runaways

---

"What the hell happened?!" Terri shouted as she stared at Allyssa, whose eyes were radiating forth a brilliant white light

Augustine was by their side in moments. She put her hands on Allyssa's shoulders and hissed out "Sleep," to which Allyssa just passed out, falling forward into Augustine's arms.

"Is she going to be okay?" Cindy asked, frightened.

"Allyssa will be fine," Beatrice said as she walked over. "I was actually half-expecting this event to occur."

"You knew she had that potential?" Augustine hissed. "How come you never told me this?"

"You were planning to retire in two years; I honestly never thought it would come up."

Bullshit!" Augustine replied. "You hid this from the council until you could 'wake up' her ability when it would benefit you more. I suppose all the disdain you had toward her was part of the farce?"

"ENOUGH!" shouted Terri, causing their attention to refocus. "I don't have the time or the patience to listen to brood squabbling right now! If I wanted to do this I'd go home and log into the vampire role-player chat room."

"You have any idea who you're speaking to?" Beatrice snapped back.

"A couple of self-important women with superiority complexes who need me as much, or more, as I need them," Terri fired back. "Now tell me what happened to Allyssa."

Augustine smiled at Terri, instead of the scowl she was expecting. "Superiority complexes huh? I knew I liked you the first time I met you."

Augustine leaned Allyssa over and Terri took the girl into her own lap. Allyssa began to stir, looked up with half-lidded eyes and smiled.

Terri noticed a shape moving in the corner of her vision and realized Allyssa's hand was reaching up to caress her cheek.

Before she could turn her head, Allyssa had straightened up to plant her lips on Terri's, using her hand to keep Terri from turning away.

Terri watched as the awkwardness of the moment began to register on Allyssa's face as their kiss seemed to bring her fully awake.

Terri had a moment to chuckle inwardly as Allyssa remembered how and where she had fallen asleep.

"So, did you intend to kiss Terri in your dream or you think she was someone else." Cindy remarked with a smile.

"Uhm, no comment," was Allyssa's reply. "Was I dreaming or did I start glowing?"

"You are a spirit caster dear and your aunt knew it."

"SWEET!" squealed Allyssa, her tone unlike what Terri expected.

"You mean you like it?" Terri asked.

"Oh heck yes," Allyssa stated as she got to her feet. "No longer must I collect the tears of preachers for healing spells."

"Uhm, what?"

"Stop being so dramatic Allyssa dear. You're scaring your friends." Augustine said. "It's a reed called 'Preacher in the Pulpit' and it collects rainwater. The water mixed with several ingredients and the reagent required for a regular user to heal. We imbue the water and pour it on wounds."

"And Allyssa doesn't have to?" Terri asked.

"I would think that your sudden and rapid recovery would have clued you in," Beatrice said. "Even while doing nothing, the very air around a spirit caster is charged with healing energy that should have cleared up all the ill effects of those sink spells we already cast upon you. Were she to actually act, she could focus that power into sealing up cuts and healing burns."

"You mean none of you can do that?" Terri asked. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, for many centuries, our kind of magic and their kind were separate. We have developed our own ways of healing now, but besides the components that are required, they use more mana than a spirit caster's spell, so it's inefficient as well."

"So they just have access to a different form than most users?" Terri asked as she looked at Allyssa who appeared to be actually beaming. "What now?"

Terri was helped to her feet, where she was immediately embraced by Allyssa. "You're going to let everyone else get a sink in and I'm going to make you feel better."
 
 
As if on cue, Allyssa's eyes began to shine and Terri could feel the last aches disappear, leaving her with speed.

"How can you just be doing this?" Terri asked. "You just became a spirit caster!"

Allyssa embraced Terri more forcefully than before.

"I just think it."

Augustine looked over the girls and their embrace. "I guess everything is back on schedule."
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri rang her doorbell, supported under each arm by Allyssa and Cindy.

She was exhausted and she was sure it was the sink spells that had done it.

Lexi answered the door, but not before Terri nodded off again.

She awoke enough to move her feet instead of being dragged into the house, followed by her boarders, who were all feeling refreshed and very awake.

Several had offered assistance in walking her in but Cindy and Allyssa insisted in the task themselves.

Terri's mother offered them the sofa in the main floor sitting room and they laid her down on it softly.

Terri was quietly listening to the other people in the room when an alarm went off in her head.

Her eyes snapped to full alert and she shouted "Nethazar's here!" interrupting the conversation.

"WHAT?" screeched several of the women.

"Terri's got an old moat alarm around the house!" Allyssa hissed. "Front or back?"

"Four in front, more in back!" Terri groaned, still tired. She tried to get up off the couch, but was pushed back down by Cathryn.

"Martha and Sophie, cover the front door and cast delayed Teleports. Allyssa, take your friend and get out of here."

"Where?" Allyssa demanded.

"ANYWHERE BUT HERE!" Cathryn screamed back. "Everyone spend as much mana as you can to teleport as many times as possible. They won't be able to chase if you juice out and then run a block and do it again. Just randomly and don't go home or anywhere you normally go."
 
 
There was a hideous sound of wood and metal tearing as the front door was attacked from the outside. Terri could see a few faces becoming pale.

"Nancy, take her mother and the girl and GET!"

Everyone in the room save Terri, her mother, Lexi and Cindy began casting spells under their breath.

As the door shuddered and gave way, a creature entered the house, with six spindly legs and a decidedly spiderlike appearance.

Its appearance gave Sophie and Martha the chance to send brightly colored bolts in its direction. Terri thought she recognized one from her nightmare and watched as it tore the limb right off the beast, but had no time to react as her world snapped to black and she felt the familiar buzz of teleportation.

She appeared into a blinding white, only to realize she wasn't on the ground and promptly fell a foot into snow, like one does a belly flop in a pool.

It was utterly freezing here and worst of all, Terri could not catch her breath as she picked herself up off the ground. She realized the air was thin and they had to be on a mountain. She couldn't feel her fingers already, though the suit began doing its best to cover her completely.

"Wh-wh where?" was all she could get out before Cathryn grabbed her shoulder and drug her out of the snow.

Terri didn't get time to react as Cathryn picked her up like a rag doll and proceeded to leap off of the top of the mountain peak they were on.

The wind carried them out away from the surface and they were falling faster, the air still unable to put out the fire in Terri's lungs.

She looked down toward their approximate landing spot, only to see the ground rushing up to meet them at a fantastic pace.

Just before they hit, however, there was another blackening and they were teleporting again.

She wrenched her eyes open again in time to see them over water and falling fast again.

Cathryn tossed her away like a sack, straightening herself out to plunge in with pointed toes.
 
 
Terri suddenly felt the suit pulling her arms in against her chest, sliding over her face and pulling her body into a shape that felt like a wrapped mummy.

She felt the water's surface pass over her from foot to head as she plunged in like a pointed spear, but not any pain. The suit wasn't opening up for her to breathe, however.

She struggled vainly against the suit, only to feel it shifting on her. The suit released its grip on her arms and she found she could swim in the water. The material around her head was quickly inflating into a bubble and she was starting to be able to see out of it.

Finally she could breathe again and spent several seconds coughing and gasping for breath before looking out of her bubble.

She could see Cathryn, just submerged in front of her, not moving.

Terri looked at her own hand and realized that the suit had formed webbing between her fingers, and there was a large black tail fin attached to her still mummified legs.

"Oh, hell no!" she said. "I am NOT going to be a mermaid!"

But the suit wouldn't listen and she refused to waste whatever air recycling it had in her bubble without doing something.

She paddled her way through the water, not quite getting the hang of the tail fin. She grabbed onto Cathryn then made a hasty swim for the surface.

What was only seconds, felt like hours as her arms hurt from all the rigorous activity.
 
 
Terri finally broke the surface with Cathryn in tow. She got the woman in front of her and gave her the Heimlich, knowing she had nowhere for proper CPR.

Cathryn burst back to life spitting an impressive amount of water out of her lungs. She coughed and gagged, vomiting twice before she could calm down.

Terri's head bubble popped and the material became a large, Elizebethianesque animal collar, preventing the moving water from getting near her face, but still allowing her to breathe air.

"Are you trying to get us both killed?" Terri demanded. "And where the hell are we? And where the hell did we land the first time?"

"That was K-Two, Everest's little brother. Only a few miles away and almost as tall."

"What the fuck are you doing? You nearly got us killed, what with slamming into the ocean and landing on a mountaintop."

"They need time to find where we teleported from to trace it, and up there it's so cold and we jumped off the top and got so far down the side, that anyone would freeze to death just looking for the second portal."

"So where are we now?"

"The Straights of Magellan, Cape Horn, in the southernmost tip of South America.

"This is nuts, why are we going all over the world?"

"Because we can," Cathryn replied and the world went dark as they shifted again.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Six deserts, two more frozen wastelands later, which included the center of the arctic known as the North Pole, a very spacious closet in what Terri guessed was either Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, Liberache's former Las Vegas mansion or else was in Elvis' Graceland, before finally landing in an alleyway in a small town.

Picking herself off the ground, she asked, "Are we done yet, or you want see the concrete platform of the Eiffel tower come rushing up to meet us?"

"Tempting, but no. We're here."

"So where is 'here', Scotland?" Terri demanded.

"The country? Don't be silly. The city, yes," replied Cathryn. "It's best you don't know which state."

Terri followed Cathryn out of the alley and into the dim, but warmly lit street.

"What are we doing here?" Terri asked.

"Getting you a place to stay for a day or two."
 
 
Terri followed the woman, despite thoughts that she had gone insane, into a corner pub in the middle of town.

"Susan, I'm here to cash in," Cathryn said as she threw herself down on one of the barstools.

The woman cleaning glasses behind the bar scowled at her. "You ain't said Boo to me in ten years and now you want to call in favors?"

"Not for me," Cathryn said as she jerked a thumb toward Terri. "But for her. I need her to lay low and I figured you could put her up on your couch?"

"And what do I get outta this?" Susan sneered.

"I can cook and wash dishes," Terri answered. "My parents run a B and B and I make breakfast couple times a week."

Susan looked her over for a minute before turning toward Cathryn. "How long?"

"I'll be back the day after tomorrow," Cathryn said. "I'll get her outta your hair then."

"What's going on?" Susan asked. "This official business?"

"The worst," was the reply.

Susan turned back toward Terri. "What's so special about her."

"Gimme a drink and I'll tell you."

Susan filled a shot glass with whiskey, setting it in front Cathryn.

"I was hoping for something more."

"You didn't specify and I'm cheap."

"Fine," said Cathryn before she downed the drink and walked back to the door, brushing past Terri. "Be good and stay out of trouble. I'll make sure your mom is okay and have her call your cell phone."

"I don't have a cell phone!" Terri snapped back.

"What teenage girl doesn't have a cell phone this day and age?"

"Well, thinking I'm a teenage girl is your problem right there."

"Right, I keep forgetting."

"Hey!" hollered Susan, "You never told me why she's gotta hide out here?"

"Terri, meet Susan Meyers, Augustine's sister-in-law. Susan, meet Terri D' Angelo. Granddaughter of Agatha Winston, a teenage vortex and, up until recently, a boy."

With both women in states of shock, Cathryn took her leave.
 
 
Susan looked over Terri again. "Well, that would explain why she needs you hidden."

"Are you a user?" Terri asked, tepidly.

"No," was the stern reply. "My brother was the wunderkind, probably what drew Augustine to him. She came to this country and married my him, and no, I don't consider that a coincidence."

"How come there isn't anyone here?"

"Cause it's harvest time and the hands gotta get sleep so they hit the sack early. I've been dead for the last hour."

"Oh," Terri said, looking about the room, noting the pool table and the dim lights. "How come this place doesn't smell like smoke?"

"Teenagers shouldn't be in bars, how would you know?"

"The bar down the street from my house makes ribs to die for and I might have gotten in the door for a pickup or two without having an ID."

"Well, go through the back and up the steps. You look old for a vortex, but not old enough to be in here."

Terri passed into the back without touching the stacked cases of beer and other supplies.

She got to the top of the stairs and opened the door to a dwelling that was larger than she had expected.

Sitting along one wall was a television cabinet with a Playstation controller and cord snaking out of a door that was slightly ajar.

About an hour of 'Katamari' later, Terri was interrupted by Susan waving her hand in front of the Television.

"Wow, you were really into that," Susan said. "Have you unlocked the unlimited game yet?"

"Uhm, no."

"Well," Susan commented as she sat down on the couch. "To answer your earlier question, Augustine cleared up the smoke once and now anyone smoking in my bar gets sick."

"She is very forceful with her opinions, or so I've been told."

"I would have been more surprised if she had dropped you off herself," Susan expressed, "but then again she wouldn't do that."

"Cathryn knew what she was doing when she left you here, no one in this area is a user and no one would think to look for you here."

Terri sighed, "I hope Mom's alright, we teleported off in different directions."

"I'm sure they'll be fine. Now what's this all about you being a boy?"

Terri told a brief history, including finding out that her grandmother was responsible for almost everything.

While she told her story Terri was watching Susan's reaction. When she finished, Susan looked her over again.

"You are surprisingly naturally acting for being female for only a week. I heard much about Agatha Winston prior to my brother's death."

"How did he die?"

"Two years ago, heart attack. Even Augustine couldn't save him."

"So, what did he tell you about my grandmother?"

"Well, until she died, she had been a reclusive woman, almost to the point of being a hermit. Her husband died long before and she had only one kid, who couldn't cast magic."

"It skipped a generation, I guess," Terri added.

"But it was when she died that the truth came out."

"Yeah, she could see the future," Terri interrupted. "With striking accuracy but poor taste."

"That's what all the evidence she left seemed to point to," Susan said as she stood back up and walked over to a bookcase, pulling out a ratty envelope from between two books. "Which means this is for you."

Terri took the envelope, inscribed with her name on it.

"She gave it to me ten years ago and told me I would know who to give it to."

Terri turned the envelope over in her hands several times before opening it.

"To my confused, hurt and upset granddaughter:" the letter began, "Don't worry, your mother and Lexi are fine. Your father is another matter, as he is arriving home from his conference right about now..."
 
 

~*~
 
 
A tall, well built man in a Pin-striped Business suit dropped the bag he was carrying onto the sidewalk in shock.

In front of him, the dark, lonely hull that was supposed to be his home was partially destroyed.

He had strangely not noticed the levels of damage from the street, but now that he was halfway up the path to the front door, the giant hole where the front door had been was now quite evident. So too was the front windows which all appeared to have been blown out from the inside.
 
 
In the dark, and being concerned, he failed to notice the disturbingly giant inspection creature that was lying dead on the floor as he crushed it underfoot, looking for his family.

There was evidence of people in the house recently, including Lexi's night bag on the floor next to the kitchen door.

He raced up the steps, hoping to find everyone huddled for safety in the attic. He threw open Terri's door, knowing how to press the frame just right to disengage the lock.

He turned on the light, but finding no one he realized something was amiss. There were several pairs of womens panties on the bed, all but one neatly folded. A large vanity dresser stood in one corner, where Terri's tall oak dresser had once been.

The entire room, to him, had been refurnished for a girl.

"When did my Son get a girlfriend?!"
 
 

~*~
 
 
To Be Continued...
 
 
End of Chapter Seventeen

Synopsis: Grandma may be dead, but she doesn't sleep, and now Terri won't either. Something in the note about avoiding a trash can, and roller blading?
Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane
edited by Sephrena Miller
Chapter Eighteen

World Tour

---

Terri's father, a fourth generation Italian immigrant named Mike, returned to the ground floor of his empty home. With a hole through the front door and singe marks on various walls and frames, he was certain a battle had occurred.

In his examination of the various burn patterns, he failed to notice three figures sitting in the large armchairs until after he had entered the room.

"So nice to see they left us with something that we could use," came an old and slithering voice from the center chair.

Mike straightened up, adjusted his tie and politely asked, "I am curious as to what you meant by that statement?"

The two figures on either side stood up. Mike hadn't seen real magic in years, but he recognized the flames now cradled in two sets of hands. He grinned.

"I see that my mother-in-law was right after all. You nuts wouldn't be able to leave us alone," he said triumphantly. "I don't know what you're after, but you are not facing an unarmed man."

He lifted his left hand, as if he was holding a ball so that he could see it. He then took a step to the left before clenching his hand tight.

His seemingly mesmerizing actions had captivated his would-be attackers until they heard the sickening thunk and the man on Mike's right fell forward with a large ornate knife stuck in the back of his head.

Mike didn't wait for them to react. He pulled two weapons from the insides of his suit.

They were strangely configured guns. The barrel's bores were easily larger than a golf ball and they were both on target.

His opponents made the worst mistake anyone could make in a battle: they took their eyes off of him!

Mike grinned.

The ends of his guns erupted with a metallic swoosh and a small flash. The woman to his left crumpled to the ground but the old man stood as the shell bounced off a seemingly invisible wall in between the two men.

Mike didn't even flinch. Instead, he returned one pistol back to its hiding place and pulled out a small black ball.

"A bomb?" The old man hissed. "I will not be harmed."

"But you'll still need to breathe..." Mike said as he lightly tossed it underhand between them.

Mike was in motion before it hit the ground and exploded in a brilliant flash. The gas it produced, however left the old man coughing and gasping for air.

The hooded man bolted for the front door and, once outside, was able to catch his breath. He had however been unable to follow where the Mike had gone. He had lost two of his followers. They had been weak and, as such, deserved their fate.

The old man looked back towards the house, looking for any sign that the one who had beaten him without magic was indeed long gone.

"Well done carnival fool! You have amused me this night and I will let you live. But you tipped your hand too early and gave enough information up. Now I know that she continues to fight me, even from the grave!"

With a wave of his hand, he was gone.
 
 
Mike climbed up out of hole in the front lawn where he had somehow changed into a Gullies suit, complete with camouflage face paint and holding blades at least a foot long each.

"And they both laughed when I dug these holes," Mike said. "I was sure that he had spotted me though."

Mike, replacing the lid over the hole, mused aloud. "So he wants either Christy or Terry. But what for?"
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri unfolded the letter.
 
 
"Don't worry dear, for all the years your father spent as a magician will serve him well. I will warn you, however, that the next time that you see him, you will get ribbed about the hole that he had dug in his front yard that saved his life."
 
 
"Which one Grandma?" Terri asked out loud. "He dug five of them!"

"Who dug five of what?"

"Dad, Ambush holes in our front yard and don't ask."

The letter went on with the words,
 
 
"You deserve a break. Get Susan to take you shopping tomorrow. PS: Check the inside of this envelope."
 
 
Terri looked back down inside the envelope which was now filled with money where it had been empty before.

"Whoa!" was all that Terri could say as her fingers flipped through the twenties.

After counting, there was fourteen-hundred dollars there.

Terri counted off a hundred and offered it to Susan. "For room and board," she said, "and maybe a ride into town tomorrow?"

"You buy the gas and I'll go," Susan replied.

Terri nodded. "I wonder if Grandma gave me all this money thinking I'd spend it on girly clothes?"

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," Susan warned. "Buy what you want, but just think about it before you go to bed."

"Oh okay," Terri responded in a tone hinting at defiance. In truth, now that all the people with mana sinks were no longer in range, she wasn't tired anymore.

Susan caught onto this and waved her off as she got up off the couch. "Okay, but don't be whining about it when I get up in five hours to start the ninety-minute ride into town."

"I'll have breakfast ready," Terri calmly replied back as she picked up her controller.

Susan disappeared into the bedroom, while Terri intently looked on.
 
 
Terri felt as though an hour had passed before she set the controller down and slowly peeked into the bedroom.

Susan was sleeping soundly, wearing nothing but her socks. Not having bothered to pull back the covers, she lay spread eagle on top. Terri was glad that the bed faced off to the side, else she would have likely had a horrible image to get out of her head.

She picked up the letter and continued reading.
 
 
"DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS ALOUD!!" it said in bold print, but with a strange flickering to the letters themselves that gave Terri the impression that the next part was for her eyes only.
 
 
"Cathryn trusts in old acquaintances far too much. Susan stands nothing to gain by keeping you and, unfortunately, she has someone she can call. Go into her bedroom and unplug her clock. The outlet is just inside the door and poses little risk. This will let her sleep in and you'll get a head start.

After you do this, leave her the hundred you promised and take the rest. Leave by going out through the window in the kitchen, it's an old fire escape. The bottom step is loose and you'll make too much noise plowing your face into the trash cans."
 
 
The rest of the instructions seemed to blur in Terri's eyes, so she pocketed the letter and did as she had been instructed, first pulling the power cord from the outlet.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Two hours later she was standing inside a bus stop in a town twelve miles away from Susan's and she was still reading the letter.

She looked around to make sure no one was watching her, which was entirely pointless since the only person there at that hour was a janitor, sweeping up the floor behind the counter.

Terri walked into the women's toilet, strolled down to the last stall, traced the crack on one of the wall tiles with her pinky, and the tile cracked further, seperated and fell to the floor, leaving a small hole.

Terri removed a key and another letter from within the hole.

The second letter told her which locker at the bus station the key would open and what she would find there. It also told her to leave the bus station via the window in the men's bathroom as the boys who had been so eager to give her a ride were waiting outside for her.

She looked up again, looking at the tiny opening where the women's bathroom window used to be and realizing it had been mostly bricked up.

"Geez Grandma, you don't make this easy, do you?" she quietly thought.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Having donned the roller blades and gloves from the bag inside the locker and grabbed some food from the all-night convenience store and hitched a ride on the bumper of the truck pulling out, she figured she had to be at least sixty miles away by now and it wasn't even sunrise.

Her feet hurt from the skates and her knees hurt from having crouched down below the level of the pickup's tailgate, but she didn't care.

Another hour had passed before the truck decided to take a turn away from another small town and Terri took the road in the opposite direction.

It was only a mile into town, but getting used to roller blades plus two hours of highway travel on them while in a crouched position had already taken their toll on her. She was thankful that her suit had kept her warm the entire time and had reassured her that if her grip slipped, it would protect her from injuries.

She had bought a small flashlight along with the food she picked up, so she used it to read the next section of the letter.
 
 
"Go through town using the alleyway left of main street. Don't let anyone in cars see you crossing the street."
 
 
The alleyway was dark and quiet. She could see enough of the poor quality of the road ahead to see that her the roller blades would only give her grief, so they went back into her bag.

The suit masked her in black per her request, leaving only eye-holes. She watched in the shadows as a lone vehicle passed in front of her on one of the streets. After it was several blocks ahead, she darted across the street.

The alleyway stopped at a road better maintained and she turned left as she had been instructed. The road led out of town, but it was the open prairie again. Terri took to the ditch, still masked like a ninja.

She saw the tree easily once she got close enough. It's branches reached like tendrils up towards the light of the moon. She climbed up onto a large branch facing away from the road and saw the small bluish stone that the letter stated would be there. She touched it and disappeared.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri thought she had been used to teleporting by now; she had expected the stone to relay some sort of instruction, but instead, it had been pre-programmed to send her off to another location, far from where she had started.

She landed in a heap on the floor of a store.

Along one wall, sat bins full of plastic bags with leaves, twigs and other plant-like material in them. Another wall was covered in bottles with labels written in a strange language.

The man behind the counter, a dark-haired man with bronze skin wearing flowing khaki robes, rushed around and tried to help Terri to her feet. Something was wrong! Terri couldn't manage to stand up on her own!

He helped her over to a bench behind the counter, not speaking a word, until he had slipped off her shoes and put his hands on her ankle. She instructed the suit to leave a shoelace touching so they would appear to be separate.

"Hmm, your ankles appear to be broken. Both of your legs are swollen around each ankle. What have you been doing?"

"Hitched a ride on the back of a truck using roller blades, then ran for a few miles, and finally got teleported here," Terri answered.

"The strain on your ankles should be severe already. How did you not notice the pain?"

"I've felt worse, much much worse. I've learned to ignore it."

"Well, you've come to the right place," The man said, standing up. "This is the finest Apocothery in all of India."

"India?" Terri questioned. "As in New Delhi, India?" Terri was less concerned with the what and more of the where.

"Bombay, actually," he corrected. "I use magic to keep the sea air out of my shop. The moisture ruins labels on the bottles."

Terri sighed.

"Dammit Grandma, what are you doing to me?"

"I am sorry, but what does your Grandmother have to do with this?"

"My Grandmother is dead, yet she haunts me."

"Ahh, I think I have a potion here for that."

"Not literally. I'm sorry. My grandmother could see the future, really well in fact. She has made the last ten days of my life miserable, despite being dead for almost eight years now."

"You.. aren't Aggie's granddaugther, are you?"

"Aggie?" Terri asked.

"Agatha Winston."

Terri could feel the blood draining from her face. She knew that the shocked expression she was displaying only served to answer the man's question and he smiled.

"I owe your grandmother a great favor and I intend to pay it back," he said resolutely.

He began moving back and forth about his shop, picking up bags of plant leaves and a bottle here and there. He commented, "Your grandmother saved both my wife and my sons from death. If not for her, I would not be the happiest man alive. I would be a lonely shell if not for my love. This is the least I can do to repay her."

He brought the ingredients to the counter where he began crushing the dried leaves, and pouring small amounts of several of the bottles into a bowl. After mixing everything together, he brought the bowl over and set it at Terri's feet.

"I don't drink that, do I?"

"Nonsense, it is topical form, spread right onto the skin, but first..." and his hand swept over the bowl as he chanted something strong and powerful that Terri couldn't begin to understand and the liquid began bubbling from it's depths to the surface in colors that defied the brackishness of the mixture itself.

"Okay, this will hurt for a moment, okay?" he stated before dipping a small cloth into the bowl and rubbing it on her ankle.

Terri winced only slightly before she felt the numbness and pain vanish. She looked down to see that her broken ankle looked normal and he was repeating the process on the other.

"There you go," he sad as he stood up with a triumph. "All is better now, but please stay seated for a few more minutes before trying to walk. Let the medicine soak in. I will apply more in a minute."

The man took a seat on the bench next to her and Terri swore that he looked visibly tired compared to just a few seconds before.

She looked down at the bubbling bowl and could almost feel the magic radiating from it.

"He must have used up most of his mana for the day just on that one spell," she thought. "And still... he needed to use all that stuff."

Terri sat through three more applications of the brew before it was all used up. The stuff seemed to soak right into the skin, leaving the cloth dry and nearly stain free.

She mimicked putting her shoes back on, while letting the suit reform her shoes, then stood up.

"Thank you very much. How can I pay you?"

"I will not take any payment, not from you. I do this as a favor."

He took one of her hands and held it aloft to kiss it when Terri saw her chance. No sooner than his lips touched her skin then she forced mana back into him.

He acted as though he couldn't break away, but she let him go and he straightened back up gasping for breath.

"I don't know any magic," Terri said, "but I do know how to give my mana to others."

He smiled, bowing to her again. "Then I cannot turn that down, as it is a gift from the heart."

"Speaking of gifts," she said as she spied a barrel near the door, "Are storing stones more valuable when they are full?"

"Oh yes, many times more valuable," he replied.

"Good," said Terri, plunging her hand into the barrel.

As the glow from the barrel itself became too bright for her to stare at it, she could see that the man was nearly becoming weak at the knees.

"Please don't tell anyone that there is a new vortex in town, okay?" Terri said with a smile as she opened the door. "It's part of the reason I'm on the run."

Then she left.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Although navigating the sidewalk markets and having to resist the urgings of the salesmen to buy every little thing, she was quite content to wander about a foreign city. The clouds were already becoming shades of pink and reds. She knew nighttime wasn't far behind.

She was slowly getting used to the idea of not seeing much daylight, but despite having witnessed the fourth sunset now, between all of her teleporting around, her sense of time was skewed just a bit.

Terri's stomach forcibly reminded her that it had been many hours since her last real meal, a bag of cheese puffs and cookies not withstanding.
 
 
Thinking that she was in the clear for a short while, she decided that she deserved a decent meal when her nose picked up the wonderful aroma of curry. Knowing what was assaulting her senses, combined with where she was and how hungry, she was licking her lips already.

Stepping into the entry area, an Indian man in more modern clothing approached her. "Welcome to the Hindi Garden. You are American, yes?" he asked.

She nodded. "I didn't think so many people spoke English here."

"You forget that until the twentieth century, we were a British colony. English was taught in schools."

"Well, I am hungry and was drawn in by the wonderful smells coming from inside," she said. "I have not had been able to convert my money yet. Do you take American dollars?"

"Certainly," he replied and showed her inside to a table.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri was having trouble trying to move from having eaten such a great deal of lamb curry, when the waiter who had showed her in, set a letter in front of her. It was nearly as beaten up as the one she had gotten from Susan.

"You are Terri, I assume?" he asked.

Fear gripped her.

"I am," she cautiously replied. "What is this?"

"I was hoping you could enlighten us," he said. "This letter has been on a shelf in the kitchen for the last ten years with specific instructions to present it to a girl matching your description, sitting at this table, at this time, who went by the name of Terri."

Terri took the letter and looked it over.

The man continued. "There was some speculation and wagering on if you would grace us with your presence, I guess I lost."

"Not much, I hope?" Terri ventured.

"I guess I need to straighten out the bill. How much do I owe you, in American dollars?"

"Fifteen should do. It includes a little extra to encourage the owner to get it changed over himself."

She handed him two twenties and stood up. "Hope that covers your bet."

He bowed, "Thank you. May you have a blessed evening."

"I certainly hope so."
 
 

~*~
 
 
To Be Continued...
 
 
End of Chapter Eighteen

Synopsis:Terri is allowed to stand time in one place for awhile, though not at home. She makes a few new friends, who want to spend some time with her.
 
Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane
edited by Sephrena Miller
Chapter Nineteen

More Cheerleader Trouble

---

"When will this end, huh Grandma?" Terri sighed imploringly towards the skies.

She had lost all concepts of time by this point. Eleven different sunsets marking her hopping around the world had given her the most profound sense of jet-lag anyone had ever experienced, were she to actually need sleep.

She had walked almost five miles along a long-since abandoned section of the Great wall of China to touch a brick that contained a caricature of her face, which transported her off somewhere else to follow a contrite set of instructions to the next transporter.

She finally thought knew where she was, and that didn't make her feel safe.

"I'm in Chicago," Terri mused aloud, as she tried to read her letter while passing under a streetlight. "Or at least near Chicago. Dammit, where does Grandma want me to go now?"

She unfolded the newest letter, glanced down at the line third from the bottom.

"Room eight forty-two of the hotel you are standing in front of."

Terri looked up dumbfoundedly. Across the street was a hotel, just as the letter said. It nearly dwarfed the buildings around it - taking up many normal city blocks by her estimation. She fantasized that this was the place the last scene from 'The Fugitive' had been filmed.

Terri began navigating traffic, getting quickly into the middle of the street.

The doorman for the hotel saw her coming and ran out to meet her, garnering several squeals amongst the vehicles that were forced to violently brake to avoid hitting her.

"This way miss, quickly!" he called as he motioned toward her.

Terri ran past him and he followed her up to the building.

"Have a good evening," He said as he returned to his post, holding the door as she stepped inside.

The inside of the building was elaborately done, mostly in golds and pearl inlays with crystal chandeliers echoing across every inch that reeked of opulence. Terri was suddenly concerned that her grandmother hadn't given her enough for a room for the night or that she had spent too much at the Tim Horton's or the fashionable restaurant she entered while passing through Manchester.

Upon reaching the front desk, which looked to be made of a single slab of black and green marble, almost twenty foot long, she got a completely different reception, much to her surprise.

"There you are!" the concierge nearly shouted as he exclaimed. "Your producer's secretary forgot to tell us when to expect you."

"Huh?" was was Terri could say.
 

~*~
 
About an hour earlier...
 
 
"I am certain that we can insure her safety... No, there will be no alcohol in the room at all....

"... You have no reason to concern yourself. We're hosting a girl's cheerleading competition in our theater and we have a private security firm already protecting the contestants."

"... well yes, I understand she isn't a cheerleader but I'll assign her to one of the floors along with them. She'll..."

"... oh, I see. A new romantic comedy in the works and she's the star?"

"Oh, yes ma'am, I'll make sure no one finds out..... Yes and a ticket into the contest so she can observe the contestants as part of getting into the role..... It will be done."

The concierge was so busy that he did not notice the four teens around the corner that heard almost every word.
 

~*~
 
Terri was confused. For some reason the desk clerk had assumed she was some kind of Hollywood star and wouldn't go into detail as to why, claiming "the studio wanted to keep it under wraps."

Terri was even more stunned when she was handed a room key and told that her luggage had already arrived by courier and was in her room.

"My luggage?" Terry asked, with one eyebrow raised.

"Yes, in room eight forty-two. Also the studio said to give you a credit limit for our shops, just swipe your room key and it will be added your bill."

"Great," Terri said with sarcasm.

"You'll have a wake up call at seven so that you can be at the cheerleader competition at the theater on the second floor in time."

"Alrighty, Thanks!" she said, giving the concierge a wave. As she backed away, she tried to look cheerful despite being genuinely creeped out.

The elevator was just opening when two large-muscled men stepped into her field of view on opposite sides of her. They waited until an elderly couple emptied the lift, before motioning Terri to step on.

They followed behind her, turning in the lift so that she couldn't see anything due to the pair of black suits that formed a near wall in front of her.

One pressed the button for the eighth floor, before Terri could even ask.

When the elevator stopped, the men took up positions leading and following her as an escort to her room.

"We hope you enjoy your stay, miss," said one in a grainy tone, almost trying to whisper but lacking the ability. "Either due to all the working out or steroid abuse," Terri mused to herself.

Inside her room she found five pieces of luggage, all bearing her name. One was a hanging bag and she unzipped it to find three outfits.

The first was a black evening dress, the kind Terri only imagined she would be caught in on the unlikely chance she totally lost her mind. It reminded her of what she had been asked to wear on her date with Jennifer the night before all the world-romping began.

Also in the bag was a suit jacket she thought would look better on her male side. It was also in black but cut generously enough to accommodate either form.

The final outfit made her roll her eyes. It was her cheerleader uniform, or at least a remarkable facsimile. She picked it up, hoping she could distinguish it from the original, but she couldn't tell.
 

~*~
 
After having taken stock of her current possessions, Terri was left confused.

Sixteen pair of satin panties, nine bras to match, six pair of ladies jeans that were obviously made to show off one's figure, six skirts of varying degrees of length, twelve tops from full-on blouses to a small T-shirt imprinted with 'Kitten' on the front in a neon pink, but no new letter.

Terri was inwardly wondering how long the compitition she was supposedly here for lasted, when she heard knocking on her privacy door.

Terri had ignored it before she came in, but having someone on the other side of the door and wanting to come in suddenly triggered a bit of embarrassing self-consciousness.

"Just a moment," Terri loudly called as she stuffed the pile of underthings into one of the suitcases and zipped it shut in a hurry.

The door in question was the privacy door that connected to the next room.

As Terri approached, she noticed the peephole in it and took advantage of it.

On the other side of the door, stood five comely teenage girls, erupting in smiles that gave Terri more than a hint to their reason for being there.

"Cheerleaders," Terri muttered aloud with sigh as she came away from the door.

Without knowing what they wanted, Terri tried to restrain the urge. Something inside her wanted to tell them off in a blatantly obnoxious way. But at the same time, another part of her longed for human contact and it was quickly gaining strength.

She stood there for a moment longer, then grasped the handle and turned it, opening the door just as one of the girls was about to knock again.

"Oh, uhm we were, like, wondering if you were a real movie star?" asked one girl.

"That's what the guy at the front desk says," replied Terri with sarcasm. "I know it's possible, what with me being an actual cheerleader myself, could you possibly drop the 'valley girl' accent and the overuse of 'like' unless used for simile?"

Shocked looks were replaced with smiles only a moment later.

The group advanced into the doorway and Terri stepped back and off to the side, letting them in.

"Are you really a cheerleader?" asked one.

"See for yourself," Terri said as she pulled her uniform out of the closet to her left.

"Having a uniform doesn't make you a cheerleader," commented one. "All those 'Bring It On' movies is proof of that!"

"Touche'," replied Terri. "To be honest, I couldn't show you any moves as proof either. I am only on the squad because I was forced to fake enthusiasm for trying out only so I could catch two boys who intended to rape me," she quietly rattled off.

Five sets of eyes went wide as tea saucers. "That was you?" they exclaimed in near unison.

"Do you know Kung Fu?" another girl asked, trying to sound like Neo from 'The Matrix' but failing."

"To be honest, I don't even remember how I managed to knock them out. I remember walking in the door and just blacking out. I came to while standing over top of one of them, ready to hit him again."

"So what are you saying when they put you on the stand?"

"I'm sorry?" Terri said, confused.

"You must have heard?" the girl replied. "The father of one of those boys is taking you to court, claiming you assaulted the boy."

"So I should have let him rape me?" Terri spat vehemently, the condescending tone seething across her tongue.

"Smarmy lawyers, they smell easy money and more victims are getting sued for damages for defending themselves."

"Just what I need," Terri angrily muttered. "I wonder why I haven't heard about this before?"

"Who knows?" said the first, who Terri had already identified as the ringleader. "By the way, I'm Tasha, this is Chelsea, Maxine, Kristi and Stephanie," she said, pointing to each in turn.

"Terri... with an I," Terri added.

"Sooo..." said Kristi.

"No, I'm not a movie star, I just have relatives with a bad sense of humor."

"Actually, Kristi was hoping you weren't using the other bed since our school shorted us a room."

"Sure, I'll barely be using the one."

Kristi let out a nearly ear-splitting squeal of joy, before running into the other room to grab her bags.

Terri looked toward Tasha, one eyebrow lifted. "How did you know that she wanted that?"

Tasha smiled. "You are obviously not the leader of your squad. You learn things about the people you trust to catch you when you're tossed up in the air."

"Kristi wears her heart on her sleeve," continued Maxine. "You don't know, but we drew lots and she got the chair and while we were chatting, we noticed her eyeing your extra bed.

"Oh," Terri said. "What about the rest of the group?"

"There is only fifteen of us and well," admitted Tasha with a slight blush, "some of the girls in the other rooms don't mind sleeping three to a bed."

Terri shook her head. "And here I thought lesbian cheerleaders were just another fluke I happened to get stuck in the middle of, but now I'm sure they are drawn to me."

Tasha appeared to actually wrinkle her nose. "Please don't generalize! You want us to act intelligently, but you assume things that devalue your opinion of us anyway."

"I can stand the generalizations!" squeaked out Kristi, who was coming back through the doorway with two overstuffed duffel bags. "As long as you let me sleep in your extra bed, you can think I'm as fruity as you want."

Terri was blushing. "You heard us talk?"

Kristi nodded. "The door is open," she replied with a smile. "Not that anything they said about me is either lies nor insulting."

"Not that you'd say otherwise and risk losing the accommodations," Maxine quipped.

Terri took Kristi's bag and walked it over to the bed, dropping it on top of the spread lightly.

"The only thing that'll get you kicked out is if you snore," Terri smiled.

"Does your boyfriend snore?" Kristi asked, showing genuine concern.

"I don't have a boyfriend," Terri responded quietly, looking at the floor.

"Girlfriend?" Kristi asked, either unaware or unconcerned by the looks she was receiving.

"I don't have one of those either," Terri responded.

"How come?" Maxine asked, interrupting Kristi, who looked about to say the same thing. "I mean, you're beautiful. You could have probably any guy you wanted, or girl for that matter."

"Not me," Tasha said. "I like dick, no offense."

"None taken," Terri replied. "I don't think my winning personality could make anyone like me that much."

"You might be trying to drive people away, but you opened the door," Maxine added.

"If you need more proof that I am attention starved, you should know that I opened the door even after being slightly repulsed by the wide, happy smiles looking back at me from the peephole."

"Well, it's a good thing that Kristi needs a bed then," Tasha said. "She'll make good company when we turn in."

"When is that?"

"About an hour," replied Chelsea. "We have a long day tomorrow."

"What are you doing here?"

"Cheer competition, Semi final round tomorrow. We're second to perform."

"Oh, well I'm supposed to be there, in my own uniform, I guess."

"Yeah we heard that downstairs," said Chelsea. "You are actually going to go?"

"Unless you can think of a better way to get past the human roadblocks outside," Terri sarcastically remarked.

"Not tonight anyway, but yeah come support us tomorrow and after we're done we'll get to go sightseeing."

"You don't have to stay for the judging?" Terri asked, confused.

"We've seen the competition," said Kristi.

"And they are better," added Tasha.

"We're going to walk home with third place, not that we won't do our best," admitted Stephanie.

"So you won't have to stick around?"

"We could but I won't," said Chelsea. "From our window we can see a shopping mall and I'm planning to waste some time there."

"I suppose you want me to come along?"

Five heads nodded in reply.

"I don't suppose any of you brought a laptop with internet, huh?"

"Sitting on the table in the other room," replied Stephanie. "The hotel has Wi-Fi."

"Sweet, you mind if I borrow it?" Terri asked.

"Actually I do," Kristi said. "I want to get to know my new roommate."

"How 'bout after the rest of you go to bed?"

"You aren't planning on getting much sleep?"

"Not really, but don't worry about me."

"Okay, I guess I get to sit here and answer your questions," Terri said, not trying to hide her lack of enthusiasm.

"Oh okay," said Kristi. "Question one; Are you a tomboy all the time, or are you putting on an act for our benefit?"

As Terri's jaw dropped, unable to even think straight, while a voice called out from the other room, "Kristi! Be nice."

"I was just curious," Kristi retorted in her defense. "I mean you seem uncomfortable with something about yourself, but I'm not sure what."

Terri clasped her hands together and began to stare at the floor. "Well, I am adjusting to a new 'Treatment' for a problem I have."

"What problem is that?" Kristi asked.

"You wouldn't really understand," Terri replied. "It sounds impossibly ridiculous when I think about it."

"Hey, I have the internet at home," Kristi replied. "Spend a few hours on Something-Awful-dot-com and you can imagine anything."

"Including stuff you wish you couldn't," came a voice through the doorway. "Seriously, that site is full of bastards!"

Terri sat thoughtfully for a minute, before looking Kristi in the eye.

"Do you believe in magic?" Terri asked, but before she could receive an answer, she stuck both hands into her hair and began violently agitating it, as if she was working shampoo in.

She finally stopped and removed her hands when she was certain her hair was a snarled up rats nest.

Terri watched Kristi's reaction as she delightedly glimpsed a few strands falling down into place, her scalp telling her that it was not alone.

Kristi was stunned speechless, her eyes wide as possible without falling out.

"Whoa!" Kristi exclaimed, "that's some conditioner!"

Terri just shook her head in despair.
 

~*~
 
Terri was dreaming again, as the brick walls of the alleyway she was in seemed to sport evil grins.

They weren't the walls, but men. Evil looking men seemed to ooze right out of the mortar and brick, coming closer. They had dragon tattoos curling about their arms, literally, or possibly she was seeing things.

She whipped around, having difficulty remaining steady, like she was dizzy, or under the effect of a hallucinogen.

Hands grabbed her and she could feel her clothing being torn off.

Terri felt herself trying to fight back, but racked with pain due to trying to fight someone with the still bloodied stump that had been her left hand.

Her eyes slammed shut as she was forced down onto her hands and knees. Knowing what was happening, she desperately willed her body to scream out, to call for help, something, but it would not.

Suddenly she was upright again, looking into the eyes of one of them, as if the scene had suddenly changed or fast-forwarded through the difficult to stomach bits.

He was pointing an impressive looking pistol at her, merely pushing the muzzle into her chest, then laughing.
 

~*~
 
Terri suddenly woke up her dream just as the gun discharged. She sat upright in bed, her sheets falling away, leaving her nude in the bed.

She was gasping for air and trembling, until she heard Kristi wearily ask: "Are you having a bad dream?"

"Yeah," Terri said. "Go back to sleep."

Terri got up out of bed, disorientated. She didn't remember going to bed, nor taking off the symbiotic suit.

A black blob was laying next to the bed, but when she tried to pick it up, it oozed through her fingers and remained on the floor.

"Okay, stay there then," she hissed out in a whisper.

Terri looked over toward the desk, where she had set the laptop.

Suddenly, she remembered that she was surfing the web, when she was overcome by an urge to sleep.

Something about her memories didn't quite seem right. She couldn't quite place it but she could have sworn that she had seen something before she went to sleep, but not remember what.

She went over and tried to unzip her underwear bag as quietly as possible, so she could have something to wear. She had gotten too used to the suit and now feeling naked made her stick her tongue out at the blob on the carpet that refused to adorn her.

She took out a pink satiny pair, followed by fleece pajamas, sighed at how they looked, even in the dim light, then put them on.

She sat back down at the computer, then went back to reading the web comic she had abandoned when the urge to sleep claimed her.
 
 

~*~
 
 
To Be Continued...
 
 
End of Chapter Nineteen

Synopsis: Almost nothing is going quite right for Terri. She lost the suit, she new friends are unsure what to make of her and now she has to go again. Is her Grandmother trying to drive her mad?
 

Accidental Magic
Chapter Twenty: Wires Crossed
 
By Allystra Krane
edited by Sephrena Miller

---

 
The next morning the other girls had woken up to find Terri already wide awake, still surfing the web in her pajamas.

Having the second bathroom was definitely a bonus when five girls were all trying to get ready.

Terri had kept out of everyone's way, watching with intent as lipstick and eye shadow were applied while frantic pleading for the hotel's supplied iron to heat up passed alongside quaint greetings and compliments.

Terri was looking over the cheer uniform that she had laid out on her bed. She was adorned in only a pair of white panties and a matching bra since her symbiotic suit was still making up a deflated ball of goo on the floor next to her feet.

Without its presence, both physically and mentally, she was starting to be overcome by herself doubts. She wished she knew what was wrong with it, but it was no longer responding. She cursed herself for not knowing Alyssa’s phone number, assuming she would know why it was sick.

"Hey," Kristi said. "You should wear something with style!"

Terri looked up from where she was standing and saw Kristi giggling and pointing to Terri's cheer uniform while holding up one of her own; a mirror to the one she already wore. A midriff top and hot pants in a glittery lilac color with a slight flare at the end of the legs and arms.

"Why go as a nobody when you can blend in with the semifinalists and get a behind the scenes look?"

"I'm not a loser!" Terri replied. "I'm just not really comfortable with showing off so much skin."

There was a knock at the hall door and Kristi rushed to answer it.

"Excuse me," she announced as she peeked through the sight. "We're not decent enough to receive guests."

A young male voice on the other side replied, "Uh, I have a letter for the occupant of this room, it was just delivered by courier."

Terri grumbled as she walked to the door, but Kristi stopped her.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"That letter is for me," Terri replied with indignity.

"Weren't you just saying that you don't feel comfortable showing off too much skin? Why don't you go try answering the door in your underwear?" Kristi exclaimed. "You are making no sense."

"Well, when you put it like that," Terri replied back sarcastically as she watched Kristi pulled one of the hotel's white robes off its hanger.

Terri sighed but submitted to being helped quickly into it, and then got it tied together before pulling the door open and snatching the envelope out of the bellhop’s hand.

"Uhm," was all he managed to get to out as the door slammed shut on its own.

"You know, he was probably looking forward to a tip," Kristi commented sarcastically.

Terri turned around, yanked the door open again to see the bellhop still standing there, stupefied.

She reached into the top of the robe, rummaging around and acting like she was massaging her left breast, but pulling out a dollar bill after a moment.

"I usually charge for a show like that," she said with a smirk. "Consider it part of the tip." Then she handed him the bill and shut the door again.

"You keep money in your bra?" Kristi asked as she watched Terri tear open the letter.

"No, I made a portal from the robe to my backpack," Terri answered absent-mindedly.

"Cool," Kristi said. "Can you show me how?"

"Yeah, you look great."

"What?"

"Uhm, what did you say?" Terri said with a blush as she looked up from turning the letter over.

"You know that tomboy thing?"

"I'm doing it again?"

Kristi nodded.

Terri growled as she looked back at the letter. "Damn attention deficit."

"What does it say?"

"I thought I was going to be here for a few days,"

"You have to leave?"

"Not sure, but I do need to get dressed fast," Terri answered.

"Why?"

"I got a date with a laundry cart," Terri said.

"Say what?" Kristi exclaimed again.

Terri was already moving, dredging out a pair of jeans from her suitcase as she started to explain.

"Listen, my life is in danger and the only reason I'm here is that my grandmother, despite being dead, could see the future with such accuracy that she has been sending me magically teleporting around the world looking for more letters like a crazed version of that 'Amazing Race' show."

"Why?" Kristi asked which was followed by the girls in the next room joining in the query.

"Because I'm special, that's why!" Terry snapped back, as she pulled the denim pants up almost over her hips, finding they wouldn't go any higher.

"What are you talking about?" asked Chelsea.
 

~*~
 
The sudden barrage of questions from several sources plus the uncomfortable fit of her clothes was taking its toll on Terri's short fuse. She was in a hurry now and they were all getting in her way.

Terri suddenly lashed forward at the girls, her upper body, face and arms all suddenly covered in glowing lambent blue lines that jogged about in intricate patterns. Her eyes were solid pools of white, as if they were the light of stars.

"Holy crap!" Maxine cried out. "How are you doing that?"

Terri just snarled at them in a way that didn't sound human anymore, but Kristi saw an opening and flung herself in and latched arms around her from behind.

"It's okay. No one is here to hurt you," Kristi wailed, trying calm Terri down.

The lines seemed to bleed off into the air again, leaving a girl stopped in a sort of trance, which she promptly broke out of and then began crying in Kristi's arms.

Kristi got a better grip awaiting the torrent that was sure to come.

"I... I don't know what came over me," Terri managed out between sniffles. "I just got so angry I snapped and it was like I got taken over."

"It's okay, you need time to adjust," Kristi said. "That 'Treatment' of yours didn't take into account all those new hormones mucking about. There seem to be some unpleasant side effects."

Terri twisted herself around looked into Kristi's eyes, her own wide open. "You... you know?"

"It's obvious now, with everything you've shown me and what you said last night," Kristi said with a smile. "Now are you leaving town or are we going to see you after the contest?"

"I have to go hang out at the park three blocks to the south for a few hours," Terri tremblingly got out. "It doesn't say anything after that."

Kristi gave Terri one big hug, "Then don't you leave until I come to say goodbye."

Terri nodded shakily, but quickly regaining composure. "Do they know?" she asked looking at the stunned faces of Maxine, Tasha, Stephanie, and Chelsea.

"They have no idea," she replied, grinning wildly. "Now what shirt are you supposed to wear?"

Kristi helped Terri finish getting dressed then they went over the letter which detailed Terri's indicate and convoluted task of escaping the hotel unseen.

"Okay, I gotta distract the maid who is pushing the cart about, then you follow it until the service elevator... wow this is some deep and heavy level stuff."

"I got it memorized now," Terri said, adjusting her backpack on her shoulder. "Let's go."
 

~*~
 
Terri ducked out of her door as the maid grabbed towels for Tasha and Kristi from the other door. During the distraction, Terri approached the cart, which also held a giant bin for dirty sheets and it became her new home for a few minutes.

She buried herself deep along the side and waited until the woman pushed the cart until the elevator alongside a food cart.

Terri overheard the argument between the maid and another worker right as the doors shut and Terri felt the elevator start to move.

She transferred to the bottom of the food cart, which was covered by a tablecloth. The elevator doors opened on the floor for the laundry and that cart was removed, followed by another argument.

Terri absently wondered if her grandmother was the cause of all the dysfunctionality amongst the staff today, but decided not to dwell on it.

When the elevator reached ground floor, the door opened to reveal a kitchen atmosphere.

Terri waited and was pulled out into the room, the contents on top were removed and she began to silently count as she had been instructed.

At seventeen seconds, she slipped out and snuck to the rear of the room where a stack of fresh fruit crates were. She took two oranges, a pear and a banana and put them in her bag. She then picked up a crate, shouldered it to hide her face and began walking it out the door to her left, setting it on another stack that was sitting on the docks. It reminded her of the movie 'Fletch' and she nearly giggled.

She was outside.
 

~*~
 
The letter said nothing about getting a glazed roll from the bakery she passed, a good thing too as she doubted that oranges and a banana would be enough.

Upon entering the park she also found a sno-cone vender and treated herself again.

She began wandering the path as she had been instructed to do. It was a bright and clear day, with a gentle wind to compliment the March air.

Terri flipped her 'magiked' shades out of the nothingness that they had come from.

After strolling along the footpath for nearly an hour, she wasn't sure if she had made a lap or not, but she barely cared. She took a seat on one of many benches that lined the walk.

After a few minutes of sitting there, her eyes closed and she was letting her other senses take in the peace and calm about her.

She heard the slow shuffle of someone with a cane approaching. They slowly sat down on the other end of the bench.

"Shouldn't you be in school young lady?"

Terri replied without making any other motions. "I'm playing hooky, besides I'm at least nine hour’s drive from home."

"That's no excuse. School is very important," the elderly man replied.

"I know, but I have a very good reason to skip."

"I hope so."

Terri opened her eyes to see a pleasant looking man not staring at her, but looking ahead, as if something on the edge of park had his interest.

"Which way is the mall from here? I can't see it anymore." Terri asked.

"Behind us," he replied with a small smile. "I hope that isn't your great excuse."

There was a long silence as Terri tried to figure out what to say, since she had trouble relating to anyone her own age, much less someone from the previous generations.

"Well," said the man, "I really must be going. Going to meet my grandchild further down the path. I hope you can explain to your teachers why you skipped school and you'll be able to make up the work you missed."

"I promise," Terri said. "You want help getting up?"

"No, no. I'll be fine. I may not be as spry as I used to be, but this cane is more defense then dependant.

"Goodbye then, take care."

"You as well," he said as he shuffled away with a wave.
 

~*~
 
Terri was off in dreamland again when she heard hurried footsteps approach. Her eyes flung open to find Kristi bearing down on her at breakneck speed with the other girls following close behind.

"Ooph," Terri managed to squeak out as Kristi attempted to crush her in a hug.

"You feeling better?" she asked.

"Yeah," Terri said. "I have been sitting here almost the whole time trying to work out how you figured it out, or if you did at all."

Maxine spoke up. "You're really a guy, right?"

Terri sighed, "You got me, but how?"

Kristi giggled. "I told them as we were walking here. As for how I figured it out, well, you were this huge tomboy, but you didn't outwardly try to be and all your clothes were gently feminine but nothing that tried to be really sexy, not even your cat suit. Then when you transformed earlier, it all clicked into place."

Tasha nodded. "I have never heard of conditioner good enough to untangle super-messy hair. Kristi said you knew magic and I believe it now."

"I have one question," Chelsea asked. "Is this a curse or something, like a weird version of the frog prince thing?"

"It's a long story, really," Terri responded. "At first I thought I was cursed, then it was a tacky warning flag for other people to notice me, but now I'm this way by choice."

"So, are you like, hot, when you're a guy?"

"Only if I want to be, but not before."

"Do you like guys?"

"No, I don't think so."

Tasha looked around and then turned to face Terri. "Can we see? There is no one around."

"You want me to change here?"

"You scared?"

"Only that I'll rip these tight female pants apart," Terri replied.

"Aww cmon, you can't just keep the curvy butt and change everything else?" Chelsea asked.

Terri closed her eyes and felt out into that place in her mind where the switch was and triggered it, but felt nothing.

She opened her eyes in time for Maxine to comment, "Was that all? I mean I saw a glowing around you but nothing happened."

Terri looked down, she was indeed still a female.

She tried again, harder. No effect.

Terri got suddenly worried. She looked at Maxine a moment, her brow furrowed and Maxine squeaked out a protest as she was suddenly transformed into a man, with muscles that threatened to tear up the tiny shirt he had been sporting.

"Hey, whaddya do that for?" Maxine angrily asked.

"It works on others, why not me?" Terri mused aloud before closing her eyes again.

Terri was sweating, straining and the girls swore they saw ripples in the air around her as suddenly they all switched gender.

Maxine was back to her own self but she was now staring at four boys in skirts that could have passed for a bad drag queen boy band.

Terri opened her eyes again to see the looks that four teenagers were giving her and she realized what she had done.

"Sorry, sorry!" she said as she pointed her finger at each one and they came back into their previous shape.

Her finger fell on Maxine who promptly grabbed it and pulled it down and out of the way. "I don't think so missy, I was a girl too."

"Sorry, I wasn't going to hit you again; it was the reflex of going one to another."

"What gives you the right to make me your Guinea pig?" Maxine snapped. "Hell, any of us?"

"You don't understand. Did you see me become male at any time?" Terri answered, her voice faltering.

"Well... no, but," Tasha said.

Terri suddenly had a profound moment of insight. "It's not my suit, it's ME!"
 

~*~
 
The old man was smiling as five teenage girls passed him down the walk. He continued onward until the path wound into the trees at which point his step increased, the cane took a place hanging on the crook of his arm and he confidently walked up to a group of angry-looking men and women dressed in all black.

"Well?" asked one of the women of him.

"Calm yourselves my children," Nethizar said as he tossed the cane off towards one of his followers. "It is just as we expected, she has no idea who I am. She likely has been helped to get this far."

"Why didn't you just take her then?" asked another. "You had plenty of time."

"As I was about to explain before being interrupted," Nethizar said, hinting his displeasure, "she's been helped. There must be a quite powerful ward on her because she didn't even realize what I had attempted to do."

"So what do we do?"

"We are going to have to wear down that ward. There is no plan without her."

---

 
To Be Continued...
 
End of Chapter Twenty

Synopsis: No rest for the wicked, or for anyone being chased by the wicked. At a time when the last thing she needs is a fight, well she gets one anyways. But her fighting spirit is the last thing that anyone was expecting.
 

Accidental Magic
Chapter Twenty-One: Dancing Puppets
 
By Allystra Krane
edited by Sephrena Miller

---

 
Terri had curled herself up into fetal position on the bench with Kristi and Tasha taking up positions on either side.

Maxine, Chelsea and Stephanie just looked on as someone they barely knew just broke down again for the second time before noon.

Terri was pulling her legs up against herself, the coolness of the early fall day finally getting to her.

"It's going to be okay," Kristi said. "There has got to be an explanation for this."

"Yeah, Grandma is jerking me around again," Terri said with a sneer.

"Even if it's crazy, I am sure it has to be reasonable," Kristi added. "There is no need to cry."

"Speak for yourself," Terri said. "I think I deserve this cry. If I have to be stuck as a girl, then I'm allowed."

"C’mon, you are just being silly," Tasha said. "Didn't you just say a few minutes ago that you wanted to be female by choice?"

"You don't understand!" Terri snapped back, burying her head in between her knees.

"I don't get it," Tasha said. "You did say that you were..."

"Only because it was my choice to make!" Terri stuttered out from between her knees.

Kristi gave Tasha a stern look as if to say "You're not helping." before turning her attention back to the shivering mass in her arms.

"By your reaction," Kristi said with a soft voice, "you must have been stuck for awhile once before."

Terri nodded but there was a long silence while she composed herself but Kristi wouldn't let go.

"I thought I had done it to myself," Terri squeaked out. "Grandma had set up this scroll with a spell and I found it the Friday night before last. I had no idea that the spell made everyone at school think I'd always been a female so I spent the whole weekend in a panic attack."

"How did you change back?" Maxine asked.

"Despite being promised by one of my classmates who is also a witch," Terri replied, indignation replacing her disparaging tone. "I didn't find the right spell until Tuesday night."

Kristi nodded. "I understand now. You were terrified and no one could help you. Those five days must have gone by so slowly."

Terri nodded again. "Allyssa did give me a... magic suit on Tuesday that was affecting me as I wore it."

"Making you feel better?"

"Yeah, but it fell off me last night when I lost the ability to change back. It won't speak to me anymore."

"Are you sure you lost the ability last night?" Maxine asked. "I mean, when was the last time you were male?"

Terri wiped tears from her eyes, thought about it for a moment before blushing slightly. "I think it was Saturday."

"So you just have to tell yourself that you are choosing to remain female until such time that you regain the ability to change back," Kristi said with confidence. "Just be optimistic about it, alright?"

Terri took several deep breaths then nodded slowly. She uncoiled herself from her fetal pose, mentally trying to tell herself that she could deal with it.

She was helped to her feet by a joint effort by Tasha and Kristi, and then Terri spoke up.

"I've been relying on my suit too much. I realized last Friday that it was helping me, but I never realized how much until now."

"It's okay, you're entitled to a bit of a freak out," Tasha said. "Now, are you coming with us to the mall?"

"I suppose," Terri said slowly, not really wanting to go but not wanting to upset her new friends.

She was just about to follow them when a spear of ice drove itself fast into left arm. The force of the blow knocked her backward and over the bench, leaving the rest of the girls stunned.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY... BITCHES!" screamed an angry man's voice behind them.

Behind the bench, Terri was struggling to lift herself off the ground. The throbbing from her wound was flooding her pain centers and her eyes were already swimming. She couldn't just ignore it.

She got back into a sitting position on the grass, and then pressed her right hand against the spot on her bicep where she had been hit, to find a solid hunk of ice protruding several inches from her skin.

She knew that removing it would likely cause her to start bleeding uncontrollably, but she could feel a darkness already creeping into the back of her thoughts.

Meanwhile, Maxine had grabbed Stephanie and Chelsea while Kristi had Tasha's hand and they were bolting in opposite directions as fast as they could run.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Tasha screamed.

"Terri said some bad people were after her," Kristi responded. "I guess they finally caught up."

Kristi veered off toward a particular grove of bushes. Tasha was barely keeping up: her feet caught in a permanent stumble when they breezed through the first line of shrubbery and she tripped over a leg lying on the ground and pitched face first onto another person.

She picked herself up, to find she was now straddling Kristi in a compromising position. Kristi's eyes were shut and she wasn't moving.

Two pair of hands dragged her off Kristi's still body. She turned to view the owners of the hands, only to find she was looking at an older woman and another Kristi.
 

~*~
 
Terri was losing the struggle to keep from blacking out. The inky blackness in the edges peripheral vision was creeping up and distorting the image before her.

She could hear him talking loudly as he approached the other side of the bench, but she couldn't make out a word as she was now fighting a battle with a part of her own mind. A battle that she could sense she was quickly losing.
 

~*~
 
As Victor, one of Nethizar's chosen, approached the bench, intent on hearing a sobbing little girl behind it, he was surprised as she tore through the wood of the bench as if it had been made of paper and ran straight at him, her eyes ablaze with fire and her hand clutching the icy spear she had yanked from her own arm.

He never had time to yell as she drove it through his ribs and into his left lung with a wet crunching noise.

She didn't stop moving, choosing to tear out his throat with her left hand as she passed him.

Before Victor hit the ground, he was already dead and Terri was quickly running down the next cultist who decided to challenge her.

Terri was charging with gusto, showing no fear or remorse as four balls of energy narrowly missed her. She was dodging magic attacks that were blowing six-foot craters in the grass behind her but she closed in on the woman and suddenly charged her own blast in her right hand.

She struck the woman in the solar plexus with a clawed left hand. It appeared as though she had formed her fingers into short jagged blades and they drew blood, but it was the glowing red ball that Terri released directly into the woman's face that ended it.

Almost instantly a headless corpse slumped to the ground and Terri stood a moment, catching her breath, only to be struck from behind by someone else's magic.

Lightning arced about her frame as she screamed in an almost feral way, before dropping to her knees.

The flare in Terri's eyes relit after only a moment and her clawed hand drove itself into the soil beside her. The sudden rift she created in the ground began splitting and lifting the earth unevenly, tearing a jagged, twisted, crack in the earth that ran under the legs of the woman who attacked her.

Terri tore her hand out of the dirt and as she did, a spike of rock erupted from the ground, throwing the woman into the air.

She didn't return to the earth gently, as Terri had somehow crossed the distance and slammed the woman's head into the dirt with enough force to leave a hole with a human stuck in it like an ostrich.

The earth shuddered under the impact, stunning the dozen or so cultist members running up to join in.

She was nightmare clothed in substance, her arm dripping with the blood of their comrades. She had little showed no satisfaction in her deeds, but no sympathy either.

Several turned around, realizing that Terri's unsettling gaze was upon them, but it was already too late.

Terri reached the closest man in only seconds, grabbed him and dropped him into an unconscious pile as a blue mist appeared to emanate from him and flowed into her.

Terri stood over his prone form when she was struck in the chest with bullets. Again and again her shirt burst like bubbles breaking the water's surface. She staggered backward from the force of each round as it slammed into and through her. One final shot pierced her right eye before blowing a hole out the back of her head.

"Stop!" screamed out Nethizar as he grabbed the gun from the hand of his follower and used the handle to pistol whip the woman. "What were you thinking? She is of no use to us dead!"

Terri had fallen to her knees once again and wobbled briefly before falling forward on her face.

"She was unstoppable!" the scorned woman screamed back as she held her jaw. "You couldn't take her over, no matter what we did. She took everything we threw at her and still managed to rip them apart."

"I never gave any of you the order to attack," Nethizar said before he spat on her shirt. "If you had all attacked together, or focused your assault with teamwork, you could have drained her shield and kept her from fighting back, and then she would have been ours."

"Well," the woman said as she faced the old man. "Well, she's dead now. I was trying to save...."

She was cut off as Terri had picked herself off the ground and gotten even angrier while they were distracted with each other, crossed the distance to them, then slammed her hand through the woman's ribcage and crushed her heart in her palm.

Nethizar was taken back. He was slowly backing away from this inhuman creature before him. He was staring into Terri's face, the grass of the park behind her visible through the hole in her right eye socket.

"Now I understand," Nethizar said as he teleported away, just inches ahead of a wild swipe.

Kristi came strolling up, dragging an unconscious man behind her with all the effort of dragging a sack of potatoes.

Lost was her skirt, replaced by leggings and she was holding a wooden pole in her other hand.

"Whoa," Kristi remarked. "You really got hit good there. But while you distracted the stronger ones, I managed to take out about a dozen before they teleported out."

Terri stared at her through one glowing eye, snarled and lunged at Kristi.

Realizing she was in trouble, Kristi began using her polearm to defend and keep Terri out of arms reach.

Terri was only on the offensive and Kristi used the openings the feral girl left to score hits against the right side of her head.

Terri's face was cracking like hardened clay, each blow extending the rifts across her forehead and cheek. She was unaffected by this, her only concern seemed to be causing harm to Kristi.

The polearm started to show the signs of wear, as Terri's claws left large gashes along its length. Even with all the attacking, Kristi continued to keep Terri at bay.

Hands lit up and fire entered the equation, forcing Kristi to employ new strategy to avoid being burned, but, after only a few seconds, Terri's flaming hand appeared to crumble and break off.

Kristi hopped backward as Terri now looked at the hollow tube that was what remained of her arm. The glow in her remaining eye went out and the right side of her face completely crumbled away leaving a partially-intact living shell of a human being.

There were tears forming in her eye as she crumpled to the ground. She was still trying to look up and see Kristi.

"I'm sorry," Terri mumbled as best she could with half her face missing. "I didn't mean to hit you."

Kristi dropped her pole and took the girl's outstretched hand. "Don't worry," she said. "This is just a clay golem copy, just like you. Your grandmother worried that I might be in danger, same as you."

Kristi pointed toward the edge of a strand of trees where Terri could see herself, Kristi, Cathryn, and Tasha approaching.

The golem Terri started to laugh and cry at the same time while trying to get up off the ground, prompting the golem Kristi to take the broken girl into her arms.

"Your suffering is over sweety," golem Kristi said as the real Kristi charged a ball of blue magic in her hand as they approached. "You did your job really well and I'm sorry we had to deceive you."

The ball was let fly and the two golems were frozen in their embrace, icy cold engulfing and hardening their bodies while frost formed across their surfaces.

From their side, it almost looked like a white plaster statue.

Cathryn spoke a violent-sounding verse and the golems both shattered into tiny pieces.

"Why did you do that?" exclaimed the real Terri, still clad in her symbiote suit.

"She was in pain," Cathryn said. "That was part of the construction. It wouldn't have believed it was you if it didn't have feeling from the skin. So she took the bullets and everything for you."

Tasha looked back and forth between the other people standing there before blurting out, “I still don't get what's going on!"

"Where are the rest of the girls?" Cathryn asked.

"I think they are hiding out in the bathrooms," Terri said with a small grin. "Over there."

"I'll go get them," Kristi said. "They'll need to hear this."

"Indeed," Said Cathryn.
 

~*~
 
A few minutes later, Cathryn was standing over four very confused, scared and jittery girls who had just had their world turned on edge.

Kristi and Terri were sitting across from them, and giving the girls a few seconds to calm down.

"Who were those people, how could they throw fireballs and why don't you have a hole in your arm?" Chelsea exclaimed.

"It's a long story," Terri replied.

"Better get telling," Tasha said. "I saw most of it and I still don't understand it."

"Okay," Terri said with a sigh. "The last time I saw all of you directly, was last night. After you went to bed, Kristi and her Aunt Cathryn put a magical puppet in my place, called a golem."

"You're in on this?" Tasha exclaimed.

"I've been a user all my life," Kristi said. "I just never had a reason to tell you. None of you show the proper affinity for magic like I do. But I wasn’t aware of what was going on until we met her."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Maxine asked.

"I knew she was a user from the moment I met her, because we have a connection."

"And what connection is that?"

"Terri had that magic suit, remember?"

"Yeah, the one lying on the hotel floor, what about it?"

"First off," Kristi said with a smile, "It isn't really lying on the floor in our room. She is actually wearing it, but the golem couldn't, so we had to fake it."

"And the other reason?" Tasha asked.

"I wear a magic suit too," Kristi said. "And my suit recognized hers, because mine was its parent."

Terri turned to stare at Kristi, "You mean?"

Kristi smiled and gave Terri a hug. "Yes, I carried the infant suit that you now wear... in my womb."

The girls on the other side of the table were as shocked as Terri.

"Your suit was originally supposed to go to Allyssa," Kristi said, "but she called me that night asking if hers was ready and that she knew someone else who needed it worse than she did."

"When I met you, my suit told me who you were. When your golem started in with the anxiety attacks, I knew what Allyssa meant when she said you needed it more than her."

Terri was blushing heavily. She had no idea who had given her the suit and the new information was embarrassing her.

"So, you were controlling a magic golem..." Chelsea asked.

"Actually the golem was controlling itself," Cathryn said. "I copied Terri's mind into a control stone and put it into the golem and let it control itself."

"Our magic suits have emotional properties as well," Kristi said. "Terri's suit has been gently helping her. Between all the craziness in her life and her new female hormones, she is having some trouble adjusting. The golem didn't have that help and that is why we kept dealing with it breaking down."

Terri only blushed further. "I'm not really that bad, am I?" she gushed.

"Worse I'm afraid." Kristi said with a smile. "But we're here for you."

"Why are you telling us all this?" Tasha asked, getting anxious herself. "Doesn't us knowing pose a risk to you? How do you know we won't tell anyone else?"

At that point Augustine and three men that Terri didn't recognize stepped in from the side of her field of view.

"It's because it doesn't matter if they told you," Augustine said with a hint of irritation. "They just needed to keep you here until we got here."

"Sorry gang, but it's better this way," Kristi said with sigh.

Terri watched as the girls on the other side of the table and the rest of the girls just calmly closed their eyes and slumped into relaxed sleep.
 

~*~
 
"So," Kristi asked. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm doing pretty good," answered Terri as she lay still on her bed back in the hotel.

"Liar," Kristi said. "Your golem betrayed you. She wasn't doing so good."

"I saw those people trying to kill me," Terri said. "I'm scared, okay? I don't want to die, but I thought Grandma had a plan to keep me alive."

I'm sure she does," Kristi replied from the other bed. "Your Grandmother is legendary. She touched lives all over the world, but always made it seem like a chance meeting."

"Like the herb dealer in Bombay," Terri said with a pause.

"You met Saieem?"

"Yeah," Terri said.

"How did you meet him?"

"Grandma was starting up with the teleporting around the planet where your aunt left off, but in the process I nearly broke my ankles. I landed in Saieem's shop and he fixed them up."

"Did he tell you?"

"That Grandma saved his wife and child and that he had a debt to pay that justified helping me. Do you think?"

"Damn, she was good."

"I wonder if I am fated to meet anyone else who owes her a debt?"

"Probably," Kristi said. "Now I have another question for you. Where did you learn to fight like that? You were pumping mana practically through your veins. You could run like a cheetah, hit like a bear..."

"I can't do any of that," Terri interrupted. "Maybe Cathryn programmed it into the golem."

"She couldn't have done that, not when she copied your mind into it. The golem wouldn't have functioned with dual imprints."

"Then I have no idea," Terri said. "Since my change, every time I get into a fighting situation, I black out and when I come back, I've kicked a whole lot of ass."

"She did it too," Kristi said. "So somewhere inside your head is another personality with a real wicked violent streak."

"I hope I never meet him," Terri said.

"Me either," Kristi added. "So, should we wake up the sleepyheads now?

"Yeah, Terri answered as she sat up. "I hope they are getting the cleanup done. Man, that park was totaled."

"Totally," Kristi said with a smile.

---

Nethizar returned to the office of the abandoned warehouse he had converted into a sleeping quarters. He had given up his hideout in favor of a building more suited to holding meetings of his new army.

As he opened the door to the darkened room, a voice came from the shadow in the corner.

"So," said the voice, "how'd it go?"

"You already know the answer to that," he replied with a sneer.

There was no response.

"How come you didn't warn me?"

"I told you that going after her now would cost you several of your loyal, but stupid, followers. I never told you their deaths would be wasted."

"A golem, so convincing that I never guessed it until I saw it up close. Cathryn has gotten so skilled these last thirty years."

"I have to applaud the genius of it," said the voice. "She tapped the real vortex to the fake, gave it all of her memories and made it so it thought it was the real one. She gave it control of itself and since it wasn't a real mind, you couldn't take it over and your fools couldn't stop it."

"So, what can I take back from this situation so that it wasn’t total loss?"

"Well, your remaining force is much better at following orders if that brings you any comfort."

"Hardly any, but I suppose it was an experiment."

Nethizar turned toward the shadow again. "Next fight, I expect you to participate. You may be the most loyal solider in my army, but you cannot expect to hide away during battle. Your information is valuable, but not enough to show me your loyalty."

"You have my word that there will be only one last battle," Lexi said as she stepped from the shadows and walked toward the door. "And I will be there." she said as left, closing the door behind her.
 

~*~
 
Calmly Lexi disappeared from the warehouse and reappeared in a darkened room, concrete bricks making up the walls. A small window high on the wall let a tiny amount of light fall onto a meager, somewhat threadbare bed.

"Is everything going to plan?"

"Yes mother," Lexi answered, turning toward the wall under the window. "They fell right into Cathryn's trap, sooner than she expected, but the herd needed to be thinned."

"Any deviations?"

"Minor, had to remove two cultists myself."

"Where are they?"

"Reentering the atmosphere somewhere over Siberia."

"Intriguing."

"Thought you would appreciate it."

Lexi turned to face her mother. She hated doing this, as it made her both angry and nauseous."

"You should be getting back upstairs," the sickly woman, who Lexi knew had once been Terri, said. "They will be wondering where you went."

"How are you feeling?"

"Dying slowly as usual," came a reply. "I am using all my strength and power just to keep from rotting any further."

"You can't leave me yet," Lexi said. "She can't draw enough mana by herself."

"I will continue," she said. "For you, I will do anything."

Lexi thought silently to herself, "As will I."

---

 
To Be Continued...
 
End of Chapter Twenty-One

Synopsis: What do our dreams tell us about ourselves? What can they reveal about our futures? Sometimes the truth is scary. Sometimes it is just to make us want for something better.
 

Accidental Magic
Chapter Twenty-Two: Deviations
 
By Allystra Krane
edited by Sephrena Miller

---

 
Terri was curled up in the center depression of a large white furry lump. The only part of her that was visible was her head where she had chosen to lay her cheek into the soft mass. Her eyes were open partially while she was resting, the gentle smile on her face attesting to her general mood.

The mass began to move, revealing that it was actually a giant version of a white, short-haired house cat.

Its head lifted up and around so its nose was brushing into Terri's hair. She shivered from feeling it's breath against the back of her neck.

The cat opened its mouth and nibbled into the top of her head, first on one side, then the other. It finished by grooming her hair with its tongue.

With each lick, the color began to lighten, fading as though the cocoa tint was bleeding out through the end of each strand.

Terri was becoming a strawberry blond, but with white feline ears poking up through her hair where the cat had nibbled.

It began to uncurl and stand up, leaving Terri exposed for what had completely happened.

Her entire torso, legs and arms were covered in the same white fur as the cat, effectively camouflaging her against its body. She had a tail that lazily flicked itself about as she watched the large feline with a smile on her face.

"Mmm," Terri murmured. "Thanks, Mittens."

The cat nuzzled her again and uttered a mew so softly, Terri thought it could not have been made by an animal so large.

The cat flopped back down next to her and Terri fell back against its soft belly fur.

"So this is how you keep me sane huh?"

The cat did not reply, but it nuzzled her with its head again.

Terri held up her hands, which then instantly were covered in fur and reshaped themselves into a paw-like shape.

Terri giggled and leaned over to one side and fell onto her side and took up a loose fetal ball. She made a swiping, batting motion with her arms and a big paw covered over and drew her into the safety of the mass.

Terri made an attempt at a mewing but got it mixed with a yawn, so she wriggled in further and closed her eyes.

"You were so right," Terri mumbled. "Letting you into my dreams was worth it.

The quiet moment was broken by sound that Terri took for a distant gunshot. Her eyes opened wide and she sat back up.

The air around her started moving, churning and getting angry. There was almost a low whistling in the air, as if she was in a cave.

"Oh, looks like Show time Mittens!"

The cat faded away, leaving Terri still in her feline fur, but began to darken until it it was black and the fur itself faded until it was the smooth surface of the bodysuit attire Terri was used to. She also received a jacket and fingerless gloves as her hands returned to their normal shape.

She stood up, the boots having formed on her feet. She looked around and noticed a tiny pinpoint of light in the distance and she could feel herself drawn toward it.

She directed herself toward it and had the curious sensation of flying.

The light started getting brighter and she shielded her eyes as she was engulfed.
 

*          *          *
 
She was on examination table with her legs in the stirrups and she was wearing a flimsy gown and judging by the bulge on her chest, she was having a baby. Her right hand was pulling against the neutral fabric and ripping it apart, for whatever reason.

The walls were not the ivory, sterilized environment that that would indicate a hospital, but a room with kitchen cupboards and counter tops that Terri imagined she would find in a small-town clinic.

The lone woman in the room was acting like a nurse, preparing some chemical cocktail to be added to the drip that was already stuck into Terri's left stump of an arm. It was bandaged now, with fresh blood darkening the end.

A man, whom she assumed was the doctor, was dipping down underneath her gown to assess the progress while fluids, including blood, were starting to stain his flannel shirt.

The situation felt so real and intense that Terri wanted out. She didn't want to experience the pain again. The other nightmares had shook her up considerably and this one would do the same.

She fought against this vision to try and move, to not be the helpless observer: trapped in a body she couldn't control.

Terri pushed against her prison, harder than she ever had before. Straining against both the pain from the events going around her and her own actions to try and stop them, she could feel her head stretching, contorting. She held her eyes closed tightly.

Terri had the curious sensation of being pulled in two directions while being the one doing the pushing.

Her eyes opened and she was nude, her torso, head and arms sticking out of the head of this other version of herself, who continued to scream out about giving birth, despite having another body springing forth from her head which looked to be the more painful of the goings on. Terri curiously became aware that she was no longer experiencing the events while they continued around her.

With renewed resolve she finished pulling herself out of the other's head and fell to the floor with all the grace of a belly-flop.

As she hopped up to her feet, she was fully clothed again. Looking around, no one had seemed to notice her erupting and spilling out of the skull of the pregnant woman on the bed.

"Hmm," she said out loud. "I feel like Athena. Wonder what Cindy's dad will say about this?"

The events were still unfolding, so Terri took a moment to look at what she could only guess was herself in the face. The scene was now bereft of any sound, lending a further eeriness to it all in Terri's opinion.

"This is wayyy too realistic and creepy to be just a dream. You look like the person that I have been seeing through."

She stared at her for several moments before adding, "You're me..."

Terri tried to grab her other self but she was now too busy silently screaming to notice being shook.

Terri then attempted to stop the nurse, but said woman shattered into nothingness as Terri clumsily collided into her.

"Weird freaky dream, nice to meet you," Terri said, now getting angry. She struck out wildly at these denizens of nightmare and each one would shatter and recollect themselves as if they had never even realized they had been attacked.

Terri was getting angrier and she finally screamed out in frustrated anguish, bringing her fists up to her shoulders, ready to attack anything that came close.

She was surprised as her scream acted like a shock wave, completely shattering the entire scene around her in an ever-increasing sphere, leaving only the unending blackness once again.

"What are you doing here?" came the raspy voice behind Terri.

She turned to see that the shock wave had not gotten rid of everything. There was her wretched doppleganger, with a rapidly deflating belly, staring back her.

Terri stared long and hard at this grotesque form before her. Her left hand was severed off as had been in her nightmare, leaving a bandaged stump. A severe case of jaundice was evident upon the skin, leaving her tinted almost green and Terri swore she saw signs of necrosis on one leg.

"What am I doing here?" Terri snapped back. "What the hell happened to You? Are you really me?"

"How did you get here?" the other asked again, this time also betraying a hint of anger.

"Stop concerning yourself with the now," Terri shouted back, while stomping toward this outsider. "You know what? I may be wrong here, but if your ugly ass is any indication, then somewhere along the way, my life became a full on, fucking waste. What the HELL happened?"

"No, you can't know the future!" the other exclaimed.

"WHY NOT?!" Terri shouted back.

The other was stepping backward, keeping some distance from Terri. Her face was straining to remain emotionless.

Terri analyzed the antics and behavior of the doppleganger. A predatory grin now crossed her face.

"You're scared of me!" Terri said. "You can't get away from me and I'm stronger than you!"

"I am not!" the other snapped back.

"LIAR!" Terri screamed, lunging at her doppleganger.

Both of Terri's fists slammed hard into the other's chest, sending her backpedaling. Wild punches then knocked her to the ground.

Terri saw a fist come for her own face but it bounced off and she did not feel any sensation of pain.

Terri renewed her assault, burying her fist deep into the flesh under the ribcage.

The fight had now all but disappeared from her opponent, who was lying on the ground wheezing while Terri sat on top of her.

Terri put a hand around the other's neck, squeezing it until the other coughed out the words:

"Knowing the future changes the future."

"Wrong thing to say!" Terri seethed back. "That means grandma might have something to do with you. That means she will do this to me. I wanna know HOW DAMMIT!

whether it was her lack of air or attitude, the other did not reply.

"Why are you defending your mistakes?" Terri asked, frustrated by her own stubbornness coming back to haunt her.

There was no answer, so Terri tightened her grip about the throat.

"Answer me!" Terri demanded.

"I cannot," was the reply.

"What is so important?" Terri asked again. "ANSWER ME!"
 

*          *          *
 
Terri's eyes opened up. She sat up from the pile of straw she had fallen asleep in.

After Augustine had wiped the minds of Kristi's friends, she then contributed a lot of mana towards cleaning up the park.

Augustine had utilized her own crews for the cleanup, since they were already in the know about Terri being a Vortex. By the time the local council had arrived, Augustine was ready with a cover story that conveniently left out vortex and Nethizar's reemergence.

Sharing all that mana had left her weak and tired, so Kristi and Cathryn had jumped her about the world a few more times before choosing a weathered old barn in the middle of dark, humid countryside.

It was the country of Scotland this time; the barn long abandoned. Kristi had scrounged up some straw and Terri had passed out.

Terri's eyes darted back and forth looking over the room.

"You having another nightmare?" Kristi asked, looking at Terri from the the other side of the barn, where she was keeping watch.

"Where's Cathryn?" Terri asked, ignoring the question.

"Up here," Cathryn responded. "I'm looking out from the loft door."

"Don't bother, they are on their way here now," Terri commented, with sarcasm.

"What?" Kristi exclaimed as she jumped to her feet. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive," Terri said. "I uh, left some moat alarms along the way. They are tracking us."

"We'll fight them off," Cathryn said. "I can draw some golems..."

"NO!" Terri snapped back. "You two are in danger just being here. I can't let you get hurt."

"Well, we can't do just sit here and do nothing!" Kristi exclaimed.

"Trap the hell outta this place then," Terri answered with anxiety, pointing around the room. "Just do it and get the hell out!"

"But what about you?" Kristi asked as she turned back toward Terri, only to find that she was gone.
 

*          *          *
 
The sounds of feet touching down into the grass, when their last footfalls had been thousands of miles away, echoed softly in the night air.

Twelve men and women, full of hatred and spite, moved toward the barn slowly.

"Hold up," Nethizar said as he touched down behind them. "We might be walking into a trap."

"Oh, very likely," Said Terri from behind Nethizar, causing him to spin around quickly.

Terri was standing there, with her arms crossed. "Took you clowns long enough," she said, as she appeared to look under her nails for dirt.

"So, you know who I am this time," Nethizar smirked.

"As soon as someone pointed you out, yes"

"You must be well shielded to stand there with such impertainence," Nethizar said. "I have a quick-teleport ready in case you attempt to attack me directly."

"Nice to know," Terri said. "but I'm here to talk."

"You aren't trying to buy time so your cohorts can get away, are you?"

"They should already be gone by now," Terri replied. "If they are still in there, I'll be sorely pissed."

"Let me be the judge," Nethizar said as he motioned for his smaller right flank to go into the barn.

They spent a minute circling the structure, watching for anyone in the windows, before two of them charged in through opposite doors.

Terri could hear some yelling when the building exploded with a massive fiery ball whose heat and and the compression wave she felt despite as far away as she was.

She mentally ticked four four more off the sheet in her head, before noticing the fifth struggling through the grass while on fire and screeching, so she marked off them too.

"I was hoping that they would listen to me and get lost," Terri announced with a smirk. "Guess they left a housewarming gift."

"Cheeky little bitch, aren't you?"

"You're one to talk," Terri said, never losing the smirk. "Don't forget that you need me, you rotting mummy. Not the other way around."

"I worry that your head is trapped somehow," Nethizar said. "Why else would you be so cocky?"

"I want to join you of my own free will," Terri said, a look of frustration replacing her smirk.

"You assholes managed to follow me all over the freaking globe. That wasn't an easy feat either. You have the resources and drive to pursue me to the ends of the earth. I figured why fight it, lets just be friends."

"Do you know how many lives you have cost me during this pursuit?" Nethizar asked.

"I didn't think you'd actually care about your minions," Terri admitted.

"You thought wrong," he snapped back at her. "The rest of you need to go and recover the bodies and bury them. I'll talk with the vortex here."

The rest of the group begrudgingly walked toward the barn and their fallen comrades.

"Your friends were already gone from there, weren't they?"

"You assume they were my friends," Terri said as she stared at him for a moment. "Two weeks ago the user community wanted nothing to do with me. The vortex was sealed away. I was as bad as a mundane and now I'm being kept secret so that I won't be a kind of curiosity? I demand a better life than that!"

"I can give you that," Nethizar said, a cruel smile forming across his lips. "But I'm not sure that you'll understand what it will mean to you."

"That the rest of the 'Good users' will stand up to us and we'll have to beat them down and likely kill them," Terri deadpanned, "before doing the same to every government on this planet. Then maintaining our position by brutality and random tortures. A fairly Orwellian future to be sure."

"But do you actually think you can do that?"

"Ask one of your 'Friends' to come over and donate their lives to the cause and I'll show you," Terri said.

"That won't be necessary," Nethizar said. "Take my hand and we'll go back to my place."

"Eww grandpa, I'm not THAT into you," exclaimed Terri as she poked her tongue out at him.

She took his outstretched hand and they disappeared.
 

*          *          *
 
This is where we'll be setting up shop," Nethizar said. "I'd recommend staying inside. This is a bad neighborhood after all."

"Yeah, there might be bloodthirsty murderers about," Terri said with a grin that caused the rest of the group to cringe. They had survived the carnage caused by her golem earlier that day and were giving her a wide birth.

"I have someone you should meet," Nethizar said as he showed Terri into his private room. "You remind me of her."

"Oh, I can see what you mean," Terri commented as she saw Lexi standing in a corner.

Lexi looked up, looking surprised to see Terri.

Nethizar looked back and forth between them. "Do you know each other?"

"Of course," Terri replied without a moment's hesitation, "She's my daughter."

Nethizar appeared to get angry. "Your daughter?" he snapped. "You've been playing me for a fool this entire time!"

Terri could see a forsaken look in Lexi's eyes, but she had little time to think about path she now took. "Isn't it obvious? Yah mummy? She's been playing both of us!"

Lexi waved her arms and spells, the likes of which neither Terri or Nethizar had ever seen, sent strangely angular, geometric tendrils across every surface of the room and the old man found himself defending himself against his own furniture as it reshaped itself together into constructs that began to attack him.

Terri put an arm on his shoulder, strengthening his mana and, in turn, his shield spell.

The monsters were quickly dispatched, but Lexi had used the distraction to disappear.

"What do you think you're trying to prove?" accused Nethizar as he stared at Terri.

"I have nothing to prove, but I would think you were smarter than that!"

"Me?" He angrily retorted. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"It's simple," Terri replied. "Here, let me lay it out for you."

"She's a four-year-old with a brain bigger than a supercomputer and chip on her shoulder. She has power more than any mundane but all the common sense of someone her age. A deadly combination to be sure. I just can't believe that you have been entertaining advice from a four-year-old!"

"So," Nethizar mused. "She was using me to get you, so she could get even with you?"

"I thought I had been keeping her in check," Terri lied with a shrug. "Guess she was the one manipulating me."

"You seem unconcerned that your own child has machinations for world domination," Nethizar said calmly now.

"Well, she always has been a cheeky little bitch, just like her mom, though I haven't really thought of her as my own until recently."

"Interesting, so you think she will try to stop us?"

"Not directly," Terri admitted. "She needs the user community about as much as you do. We'll not have to deal with her until after we put them down."

"Then we have much preparation ahead of us,"

"Indeed," replied Terri.
 

*          *          *
 
Terri sat in a chair facing the small group of eight people. She had the most unnerving sense of déjá -vu, but this time Allyssa would not be there to take the pain away.

Nethizar spoke the incantation first and Terri lurched and buckled in the chair for a moment before sitting up.

"That kind of turned me on," Terri said as she lazily raised her head. "Hit me again!"

She realized that the spell they were casting on her wasn't nearly as potent as the ones used by the council and her new friends. They were barely going to make her sweat.

The laugh that erupted from her mouth as the second person tagged her sent chills across most of the room. It could best described as a deranged howl, for she was both inspiring fear and mocking them all in a single shot.

Another spell went off quickly, almost as a signal of defiance and Terri kept laughing, brushing off the sting with ease.

"NEXT!" Terri snapped out, the twisted smile on her face stopping one in mid-chant.

One by one, they managed to continue, leaving only one, nervous girl. Terri estimated her age as just barely older than her. She wondered how this despot could have possibly recruited this timid creature. "Some charisma," she thought to herself.

Just as the last sink hit, she was hit with a migraine headache that felt like her head was being wrenched off her neck and used as a basketball.

After a few moments the intense pain that even she could not shuck seemed to subside and her eyes opened to find she was in a dark room.

Candles marked points on a drawn out symbol on the floor consisting of lines extending outward from twelve points on the outside of three rings emblazoned with characters that she couldn't identify.

In the center of this symbol, sat Lexi.

"We need to talk."

---

 
To Be Continued...

Synopsis: Lexi wants to know how, Terri wants to know Why, but neither of them really wants to listen to what the other has to say. But in the end, something good will come of all this.
 

Accidental Magic
Chapter Twenty-Three: Time to Talk
 
By Allystra Krane

---

Terri could see the crude magic circles and drawings inscribed onto the floor in front of her where Lexi had chosen to cast the spell.

Though she could hear the wind whistling through the broken window panes, she couldn't feel it. It was at that point that Terri noticed she couldn't feel her own limbs either. Any attempt to move, even to just turn her head, was somehow rendered futile.

Sitting in the center of the circle was Lexi.

"We need to talk."

"What the hell did you do to me?" Terri sharply snapped. Her own voice startled her as it had taken on a distinct metallic tone accompanied by a distant ringing.

"I didn't want to take your whole body, I just borrowed your mind," was Lexi's reply. "It is harmless, if a little painful at first."

"Let me go!" Terri screamed. "You can't make me do anything!"

"By now they should be circling you and trying to figure out why you passed out," Lexi said. "When I release you, you'll get controlled which should restore the plan."

"DAMN YOU!" Terri screamed again. "I don't want to get raped!"

"I don't plan on letting you get raped," Lexi said. "Nethizar won't likely let it happen either."

"No, not now," Terri cried out in anguish. "When I go back in time and lose my hand."

Lexi looked up and Terri swore she was looking her directly in the eye. "That's what I summoned you here to find out. How do you know about your future? I know you had a nightmare about losing your hand."

Terri waited a few moments before answering, "You and I both know that it wasn't just a nightmare but since you're such a smart ass, why don't you just figure this out yourself."

"But how did you..." Lexi began to ask but was interrupted by Terri.

"I don't know how exactly it happened, but I stopped being a puppet in my last dream and got lots of useful information out of your mother."

"I wondered if that was the case," Lexi said. "No wonder you're scared of me. If you listened to my mother, you're just as much in the dark as to what's actually happening as she is."

"Bullshit!" Terri snapped back. "Do you have ANY idea what you're saying? I'm not stupid or completely brain-dead to know that you're lying to me!"

"I'm not lying to you, I'm lying to my mother."

"Same difference,"

"No, you're wrong. You AREN'T my mother and if you'll listen to me, you won't have to be. I'm trying to help you change your fate."

"YOU BIG FAT FUCKING LIAR!" Terri screamed out, her tinny voice ringing back in her ears.

"Terri please listen," Lexi said, anguish now present in her own voice.

"LET ME GO!" Terri screamed again.

"PLEASE MOMMY, I LOVE YOU!" Lexi cried out, tears forming in her eyes.

Terri was struck by what the little girl had done, the hatred draining out of her. Terri now wanted to cry herself, but her current prison prevented the act.

"Please listen Terri," Lexi choked out. "I didn't want to have to do that, but you wouldn't listen to me. Your mother knew that something inside you knew who I was since Saturday when we bonded in the park. She told me that if I couldn't make you listen, I needed to appeal to that side of you."

"Please let me go," Terri pleaded, this time in whimpering tones.

"You think I'm lying," Lexi said slowly, "but your old friend Jennifer and your mother both think I'm crazy. I really am trying to engineer myself out of existence, all under her nose."

"Why?" was all Terri could ask.

"Because I love You. I can't stand the fact that she started this out almost like you but, the decisions she made were all mistakes, one after another. I hate that she is dead but insists on hanging around so she can constantly remind me of how important I must be."

"Why would Grandma do that to you? I don't understand at all."

"Not, Agatha, My mother."

"Your mother isn't dead."

"On a technical level, she is. She died last year as a matter of fact."

"How is she still going?" Terri asked, temporarily forgetting about her current predicament.

"Mother now uses her plentiful mana to keep her body in a state of suspended decay. She waits for you to complete the cycle and then she'll let go and leave me in the care of your mother."

"And she expects me to go back in time and wait to get raped?"

"She has no idea you know about her past. You can't avoid what you don't know about, right? That's why I'm not supposed to be talking to you as her daughter, and why you shouldn't know about her at all."

"Knowing the future..." Began Terri.

"Changes the future," Lexi finished. "You know more about how it actually happened than I do. As long as you never forget, you'll know where not to be."

"Won't that kill you?" Terri asked.

"I will cease to ever have had existed actually and, though quite painless, now is not the time to be discussing past and present nevertenses."

"What do I need to do?"

"I have thought about that for as long as I've been aware of what you and I are," Lexi said. "And to that end I have meddled with events more than even Agatha, But you don't need to worry about details, you have only to await your rescue."

---

"It seems to me," Nethizar said as Terri blinked her eyes and realized she was back in her own body, in the chair she had been sitting in, "that now was a most inopportune time for your daughter to grab your mind, wouldn't you say?"

"Especially since I told you a few minutes ago that she hates me."

"There is that too," Nethizar added as he paced about in front of her. "Curiously makes me wonder if you were, in fact, telling me the truth."

"Actually it was a complete lie," Terri replied while trying not to show any fear, "though I wasn't aware of it at the time. I thought it was the truth."

She was trying to act composed while mentally trying to tell her symbiote suit to find a way to take whatever mana it needed by any means it could in order to protect her body even when she could not do it herself.

It tried to warn her, but she was still surprised when it wormed a part of itself up past her labia and into her vagina.

The shock of being penetrated gently as opposed to being stabbed by the suit caused her to momentarily flinch. What exactly did she think the suit would do to her?

Her musings were broken as she realized everyone was staring at her.

"Something wrong?" Nethizar asked calmly. "You had this incredibly strange look for a second. Did you just shit your pants?

"Not exactly," Terri answered with a blush. "Though I do have the urge to yell profanities directly at my own crotch."

"What a terrible time for feminine cramps," Nethizar replied. "I was going to allow you to retain your free will, but with all the new revelations I think I'll return to my original plan and control you directly."

Terri felt the fluid warmth of her suit shifting over her and she smiled.

"I guess the next time we'll speak is in Hell then," she said as she stared him down.

"Take her my boy!" Nethizar exclaimed in disgust as another man stepped out of the shadows and began weaving his spell.

The last thing Terri saw before her consciousness faded was her symbiote stretching over her face.

---

To be Continued....

Synopsis: The puzzle finally goes from linked pieces to a recognizable shape. Only a few pieces left and the clock is ticking...
 

Accidental Magic
Chapter Twenty-Four: Thunder Rolls
 
By Allystra Krane

---

Accidental Magic
Chapter 24 - Thunder Rolls

---

Terri was lying with her head turned to one side, when she opened one eye to see a large lumpy gray mass. As she moved she realized that the mass was the palm of her hand sitting only inches from her face. She sat up suddenly, only to find herself in an odd but familiar place.

She was sitting in a gray room that she estimated to be only eight foot on a side and about as tall. There were no doors or hatches and though it was dim, there was no source of light, but Terri did not fear this place.

This room existed only in her mind. A place He retreated to many times in the last eight years. The only place he could go to escape from the pain. It was this place he had found, though it reinforced his feelings of being alone, that he found some comfort.

The reason she had not recognized her own hand at first was the same reason that he used this place as an escape.

Although in this place Terri had form and thought and function, she had no sensation. Her eyes told her where she was and where her hands were, but she could not feel it.

It was a hollow way to be, devoid of sense of touch, but it now it seemed wrong somehow.

This was the first time since the change that Terri had come there, because at no time had she actually felt the need. No matter how foreign and different being in a female body had felt, no matter how angry or upset she had become those first two days, it had never driven her to hide inside herself.

Despite the strangeness that her life had become, she faced each day and each new revelation instead of running from it.

She had new friends that cared about her, willing to help through all the problems she had so far and were accepting of her as she now saw herself.

So it came to her surprise that she was once again looking at the bleak walls and featureless décor marking a time of her life that now felt so long ago, despite having been only days before.

Feeling only a tiny twinge of disorientation, Terri stood up and reached out to the forward wall, the one she knew brought her back into consciousness. But instead, as her finger tip touched the wall, she was instantly thrown backward, falling to her butt.

"So that's why I'm here," she said aloud to herself. "I guess I'll just sit here and wait."

Terri sensed something behind her, a force large and powerful. She turned to find the rear wall of her box was now missing, and the gaping darkness beyond held two massive, beastly slitted, glowing eyes.

Curiosity compelled her forward, despite the obvious danger.

Standing on the edge of the box and looking out as if it were a ledge, peering into the darkness, her eyes barely able to see it clearly.

With most of its body, legs, the back of its head and one arm cemented into to a wall behind it, only one arm was free to function though the crater in the rock gave evidence that this limited freedom was new at best.

"My you're big," Terri trailed off, giving the massive creature the once over. "Oh Crap!" she exclaimed as she thought it was making a move to grab her like King Kong to Fay Rae.

The free limb stretched forward, the giant scaled claw reached up into the box with its palm upward, as though it indicated peace, so instead of cowering back, Terri slowly climbed up into its palm and laid down, nestled in the crook between two of its monstrous digits.

"I get the impression that you are a part of me," Terri mused. "But why would you be all sealed up?"

---

Cathryn and Kristi landed in a field, this time stepping down gracefully as if desending stairs.

"I can't believe you left her!" Kristi exclaimed indignantly, turning toward Cathryn.

"No time to argue, drop some traps!" Cathryn snapped back, before muttering incantations and creating strange ripples through the topsoil before large, strange, lumbering creatures erupted from under the grass formed from the earth itself.

Kristi sent a barrage of small projectile spikes into the ground with a quick sweep of her hand.

"What do we do now?" Kristi said. "Where are we?"

"Somewhere in the Deep South," Cathryn said looking around as she motioned to her creations to move into a staggered formation. "Now get out your cell, find a tower and call Augustine."

---

Nethizar looked over his prize with both curiosity and intrigue. They had not been aware that Terri had a symbiote suit and now faced with a naked woman covered completely in a swirling, shifting mass of purple and black goo that had already attempted to bite off the hand that got near it.

"She let it inside her just before we took control," he said with a smile. "That would explain the strange look. Now its bonding directly to her skin so we can't even rip it off."

"We could torch it off!" exclaimed one woman, as she lit a bright burning flame in her hand and held it aloft.

"You've never read up on those symbiotes, have you?" Another man said. "They started off as mage armor back in the old days, worn under loose robes. Now that they bonded, you'll spend a ton more time and mana burning it off and end up taking her skin with it."

"Quite right," Nethizar nodded. "So please leave her alone, though when that sharp-toothed maw sprang from her crotch and tried to tear off your dick through your pants, I nearly pissed myself laughing."

"Very funny Dad," the man said. "I thought you said she would be my concubine."

"Nonsense Carl," Nethizar replied. "Go right ahead and pop her cherry my boy. Your disembowelment will be amusing too."

"I think I'd rather not," Carl meekly replied.

"Listen up fools!" Nethizar snapped loudly, turning his attention toward the rest of his group. "Our vortex is as brilliant as she is vicious. She never took full control of her suit, thus allowing it to maintain free will even while she herself is subjugated. To attempt to control a suit directly is something we don't have the time or patience to attempt, so just stay out of its reach for now, okay?"

"Is there anything we can do?" Carl asked his father.

"Deal with her yourself," Nethizar snapped. "I swear, you're a idiot."

"I can't get her to talk," Carl replied. "Its like she isn't even there."

Nethizar turned around and faced his son. "You can't even feel her trying to fight you?"

"Static Dad," Carl replied. "She moves when I say so, but its like I have to will each leg to move. I might have had an easier time if I had done a spirit possession!"

"Don't even think about it," Nethizar said. "You saw what she is capable of out her in this world. You go inside and she will tear you to ribbons."

---

In a darkened room where the heavy curtains protecting the slumbering man lying in bed from the streetlights, the quiet was suddenly broken by the sound of a telephone ringing.

A large burly arm, lightly covered in hair, reached out and took the reciever off the hook, bringing into the bed with him.

"Dah?"

"It's time Boris," came the reply on the other end.

"Augustine?" Boris asked in a thick Russian accent as he shifted in bed, sitting up. "Is that you?"

"It is time Boris," she said again. "It's time to finish what we left unfinished thirty years ago."

"Ugh, my head is swimming here woman! Do you have any idea how much I drank last night?"

"I don't really care," Augustine replied. "You swore you would be ready at a moments' notice."

"Are you saying?"

"I call upon the order of the twice doomed."

Boris's eyes were wide now. He wiped his face with his palm, now having understood exactly what she meant.

"Where and when?"

"One hour, the usual place."

"I'll take the rest of the EU, you call Xion Cho."

"Done," was all she said before hanging up.

Boris tapped the flash button before typing in an extremely long telephone number and waiting for the other end to pick up.

"Yes, hello," came the tired-sounding but polite voice on the other end.

"Marcus!" Boris exclaimed with forced vigor. "I have such wonderfully bad news!"

"Did you say bad?" the man answered back, wearily.

"I just got told," Boris answered, "it's thirty-year reunion in Budapest and Everyone is invited!"

There was silence on the other end for several moments as Boris let the message sink in.

"You... you don't mean?"

"Augustine has called the doomed to order. I suspect the rumors of a new, adult vortex were true after all."

"Who knows this?"

"I think Augustine called me first, so you would be third."

"Bloody hell, the usual place?"

"Indeed, see you in an hour. I have a few more calls to make."

"As do I," said Marcus as he hung up his end, leaving Boris holding the phone and asking aloud:

"Wonder what he meant by that?"

---

The light from four old ceiling lamps provided dim light to a concrete room with only one door leading into a stairwell leading up to street level. The door was open but as the hour was late, the street was empty and no noise filtered down into the room.

A few cardboard boxes stacked up irregularly around the room.

Augustine stood in the corner facing the door, watching and waiting, but she didn't have to wait long.

Teleporting in on the lower landing and stepping into the storage room came a dozen people all individually.

"Why did you call us here?" came the call among the ranks.

Augustine stepped forward. "I have called the Twice doomed to order. The enemy lives and we must now stand against him."

"Cut with the ornate Crap Augustine," said Boris. "The rumors of an adult vortex are indeed true?"

"They are," she responded. "She was sealed up until two weeks ago, so she has aged normally."

"Do we know this user's capabilities? Weaknesses?" asked a British sounding man.

"Yes Marcus," Agustine replied. "We know the scope of her abilities and her multiple weaknesses."

"Who is this woman then?" Marcus asked. "Would we know her?"

"Not her, but her bloodline," Augustine responded. "She is the Granddaughter of Agatha Winston!"

Shocked looks, curses and glares met her from almost every angle.

Marcus broke the mutterings with, "So were are they?"

"One of Terri's friends is locating her for us now."

"Then we have little time," Marcus said. "I have a few friends coming, they will be here any moment.

Boris looked at Augustine. "I brought everything, you said be ready and I am."

"Thank you," she said. "Does anyone else have 'friends' on their way to this secret meeting?"

The sound of feet racing down the steps confirmed this as Allyssa, Cindy and Kristi stumbling in through the door.

"We found her!" Allyssa exclaimed. "They are in a warehouse."

"Where at?" Augustine asked as a table rose up out of the floor and a map of the Hungarian capital city unrolled over its surface.

"Here," Allyssa indicated with finger.

"Show that building," Augustine snapped and the map changed to a blank blueprint sheet that quickly began drawing walls and indents for doors and windows all by itself. It even showing the second floor off to one side.

"Does that look like the place," Augustine asked Allyssa.

"It was dark, but yeah," said Cindy just as several dozen men wielding various western and asian-style swords entered the room.

"Who are you?"

The men had separated into two groups that seemed to follow race and culture lines. One group was composed of Asian men in loose-fitting gauze tunics, their swords sheathed at the waist, while the second group wore pressed suits and carried their swords, pointed downward, carried by the haft openly in front of them.

One man of the Caucasian group stepped forward and identified himself as their leader.

"Her Royal Majesty's White Knights at your command," he said as he dropped to one knee and bowed, while leaning on his sword that he had braced point-first into the floor in front of him.

"Why are you here?"

"I called in a favor," Marcus said as he stepped into Augustine's field or view. "More specifically, Agatha Winston Asked me to call in a favor for her."

"When?" Augustine snapped.

"The letter arrived in the post yesterday morning," Marcus said. "It seemed that they lost it for over ten years."

"A likely story," Augustine replied with sarcasm.

"Then who are they?" Cindy asked, motioning toward the other group, whose members were, except for one in the front, carried Japanese-style swords.

"Those are the Knights of the East," Kristi replied frankly. "The Japanese Shadow Emperor's own elite force."

"What are they doing here?"

"Because Agatha just 'happened' to save the Emperor's life once," Augustine remarked. "With what we know now, I hardly could call it a coincidence."

"We are here to repay a debt of honor," came the voice of the man who held no sword. "We have a technique that should give us the upper hand."

As he finished speaking, the man to his right withdrew his sword from the sheath and held the blade in front of the unarmed man who began a chant.

Before the eyes of the assembled group, wispy threads of maroon-tinted mana flowed off his hands and began adhering to the blade like cotton candy.

Brilliantly lit runes then appeared along the blade's length and the threads were drawn to the blade's sharp edge, weaving themselves into a dense but thin coating.

"Unbelieveable!" Allyssa cried out.

"That was awesome!" Cindy remarked loudly.

"We believe," the Asian man continued, "that this should improve our physical attacks against their shield walls."

"You have enough mana to do that to your entire group?"

The Eastern knight nodded and opened his shirt to reveal ammunition belts crossing his chest stuffed with glowing blue gem-like shards.

"Improved mana stones," Allyssa remarked out loud while everyone else nodded silently. "Very nice."

Cindy had taken up a position standing near one of the British Royal Knights in order to watch what happened.

She turned toward the knight and commented, "Like a hot knife through butter huh? You guys are gunna kick Ass!"

The lead Royal Knight shook his head as he turned toward the Asian knights to watch as the unarmed man drew the mana off the sword and reclaim it. "Sorry to disappoint you miss," he said. "But we don't have that capacity."

Cindy growled a moment before reaching and lifting his blade into a horizontal position.

Heads turned in sheer amazement as Cindy mimicked the actions and soft words she had heard, causing the runes on his blade to light up, the wispy mana collected and formed along the edge.

"There!" Cindy said, before wiping her brow. "That was tiring. I didn't think that would take so much out of me."

She then noticed the astonished look she was being given by the Royal Knights and turned to realize that most of the group was staring at her.

"What the FUCK!?!" screeched Allyssa. "Cindy, how the hell did you do that?"

"Did I do something wrong?" Cindy asked meekly.

"My Lady," The leader of the Royal Knights began, "Forgive me for not recognizing your Brillance. Would you bless as many of us like this as possible?"

"Uhm, sure..." Cindy responded while she spun around, looking at the faces staring dumbfounded back at her. "But I don't understand why everyone is looking at me!"

Augustine stepped over and put her hands on Cindy's shoulders and directed the shorter girl to look at her.

"Cindy, there are only two people in this room capable of what you just did and I doubt anyone else on this side of the Planet who can see a spell cast just once and duplicate it. Any doubts that I had of you being a random addition to Agatha's equation here have just been crushed into oblivion."

"What are you talking about?" Cindy asked.

"You know how Allyssa is special because she can heal like few others?" Augustine asked.

"And now barely able to do anything else," Allyssa said. "I have difficultly with even the most basic tier arcane magic. I can't even teleport myself anymore."

"Even so," Augustine interrupted, "Your spirit magic is a boon that we will desperately need."

Augustine turned back to Cindy. "Manifesting Mana in solid form is a rare ability, one that Agatha obviously knew you had. We commonly refer to solid mana as Plasma and those who can make those objects are Plasma Elementalists."

"Without Terri opening your mana pathways, you would not have any abilities, so you have Agatha to thank for including you in this hare-brained plan of hers."

"Oh my gawd!" Cindy burst out. "You mean that Terri's grandma made us aware of Terri because we had special talents she could exploit?"

"Actually," came a new voice from the doorway as Lexi walked in and made a beeline straight for Augustine and Cindy, "Agatha didn't make any of you aware of Terri. I did that myself."

Augustine turned her attention to the four-year old who was strolling toward her. "How did you get here? Who brought you?"

"I brought myself," Lexi calmly replied. I need to be here."

"What makes you think that?" asked one of the assembled group.

Lexi chose her words carefully, letting the pause create the desired effect.

"I am... The Custodian,"

---

Meanwhile, Terri was sitting inside her mental room, sprawled out on the floor with her eyes closed.

"Gawd, I forgot how boring it was in here."

She heard her scaled friend snort in agreement.

"I wonder if anything interesting is going on?"

---

 

Accidental Magic
Chapter Twenty-Five: Dark Clouds
 
By Allystra Krane

---

Accidental Magic
Chapter 25 - Dark Clouds

---

 
"This Whole time..."

"I never would have believed it..."

"Uhmm, who is she?"

Augustine sneered as she glared daggers at the little girl who was staring her down, with no hint of fear. "How dare you just waltz in here and make such a claim!"

Lexi made no motion to reply, instead the very air about her began to hum as she gently lifted off the ground. An invisible bubble, its surface marked by glowing sigils that were all but impossible to make out, sprang to life around her.

She was now staring eye to eye with Augustine and her glare was just as imposing at the older woman held only moments before.

"Who said I was making a claim?" Lexi snarled back. "I was stating a fact. I am the Custodian."

After a few tense moments, Augustine finally sighed. "I should have known better than to think Agatha could pull this off without help."

"I would say that she did it without me before," Lexi began, "but that would be speaking only in half-truths."

"You little evil witch!" Augustine snapped. "What do you know about the future?"

"I know more than you," Lexi said with indignation. "You have me to thank for the advantage you now have. Where do you Think you'd be if you didn't have any warning of all this? I did you a favor!"

"You insolent little shit!"

"Insulting me gets you nowhere," Lexi retorted.

"Bangarang!" Cindy exclaimed, possibly in a gesture, futilely, to defuse tension between them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Allyssa asked Kristi quietly.

"If I would have to guess," Kristi replied, "Robin Williams movie, Hook. But the little girl's comment interests me more. Is she a precognitive and why does she bare a striking resemblance to Terri?"

Allyssa nodded. "When I first saw her, I thought they were sisters. I've never met her mother and neither have any of the users staying at Terri's house."

"Who is her mother if it isn't also Terri's?"

"I don't know," was Allyssa's reply

But while Kristi and Allyssa mumbled to each other, Augustine was still facing down a very enigmatic little girl.

"Don't you think you've done enough damage?" accused Augustine. "Terri is under his control which is Not how I wanted this to end."

"You don't understand the full scope of things!" Lexi snapped back, quickly getting irritated. "This battle wasn't an 'If' it was only a question of When."

"Why?" was all Augustine could ask.

"Its what I was told to do," answered Lexi. "Its not like I was given a choice in this."

"What is your relationship to Terri?" Augustine asked. "How is Agatha able to force you into service?"

"I do it out of love," Lexi answered solemnly. "Terri needs my help. Yours too, which is part of the reason I manipulated things to the point we are now."

"So what is your plan?" Augustine said.

"Why should I come up with something?" Lexi answered again. "Agatha knew you had done your homework. I can be just another cog in your grand scheme."

"Fine," Augustine snapped. "Then here's how this is going down..."
 

 
Terri sat cross-legged on the floor of her little room, facing out into the creature's prison. Scratched into the floor in front of her were two sets of lines, bisecting each other. An 'X' was in the middle square and she was trying, quite unsuccessfully, to get the monstrous thing to play tic-tac-toe.
 

 
Nethizar was shocked awake as something exploded and shook the floor.

He leapt from his bed and was into his loafers in seconds, dashing for the door to his makeshift office.

The main floor was clouded in dust and people were gathering at the bottom of the iron stairs when a bright light burst in from outside, illuminating a large hole in the opposing wall, which explained the dust, and the silhouette of a woman striding in.

Nethizar could barely see her, yet he knew exactly who he faced.

"Nice to see the years have been kind to you Augustine," he said with sarcasm. "How have you been?"

"Have you noticed that you all gravitate towards that side of the building?" Augustine asked, the predatory grin already creeping across her face.

Before anyone could answer, she raised one hand to the roof in a wide, sweeping gesture.

Runes and sigels lit up across the floor radiating outward from her, only for a moment as the floor began exploding in the same outward pattern .

As the markings reached the other side, they started climbing the walls as well.

The support beams holding up Nethizar's loft office began groaning as Augustine's machinations were disassembling the material atom by atom.

Nethizar and his son stood, unmoving, as shards of concrete and steel flew about them, slamming against their shield bubbles.

His followers were not as fortunate, running around while frantically trying to avoid be shredded by flying debris.

One man was disorientated from concrete particles stinging his eyes. He took a wrong turn and was crushed as the second floor suddenly collapsed on top of him.

"Idiots!" Nethizar swore. "Stop running around and use your shields!"

Augustine watched as dust began rebounding off shield bubbles as they were hastily put up.

This was followed by silent but swift sword-wielding men charging past her into the building.

As the dust settled, Augustine stood facing the cultists with nearly forty people standing with her and against them.

Terri was still standing, mummified within her symbiote on Nethizar's side of the building, the second floor having broken around her and was now laying about her feet.

Cindy and Allyssa were standing amongst the ranks of people, as were the boarders at Terri's home.

An eerie glow filled the space as every inch of floor, walls and ceiling were now covered in symbols ablaze with energy.

"I'm impressed," Nethizar said. "When did you find the time to steal in here and trap the place so we wouldn't be able to teleport out?"

"About ten years ago," Augustine smiled again. "The walls, the floor. Everything. They even had to pour the concrete floor twice!"

"How did you know I would be here?" Nethizar asked, coldly.

"I didn't," Augustine replied. "I have not spent these thirty years naively waiting. I have planned for this."

"And what is your plan now?" He asked, curious but unafraid.

"To cut you down," Augustine began, just as two large spheres, each easily three foot in diameter, materialized on either side of her.

"One..." She continued, as the sphere began arcing current across their surface.

"By..." she said as she reached out and the energy appeared to jump into her hands and disolve into her skin.

"ONE!" She screamed as she let loose an impressive beam of magic force that superheated the air around it causing rings of colored distortion along its length and a thunder clap as it tore into the shield of the woman on Nethizar's right.

The concussion of the woman literally exploding into atoms shook up the group behind Nethizar.

"I'm impressed with your toys," he exclaimed. "But they are spent now and need to be put... Away?" He stopped as the glow returned as he spoke.

"You'll find..." Augustine began as she motioned toward the group, whose rear ranks then materialized their own spheres, "that we've all been preparing for this day, including tapping Your vortex for ourselves."

A flurry of activity as the two groups of knights each stepped up to get their weapons enhanced.

Cindy blushed from all the kisses to her hand she received from the very gentlemanly knights just before they entered the battle.

Just as the last knight stepped back, he suddenly angled his blade and deflected a fireball from striking Cindy.

"My lady, they have finally started retribution," he said to her as brillantly-colored balls of light were exchanged at high speed across the gap between the two groups. "You might want to put up your shield."

Cindy blushed and nodded, a bubble appearing around her.

"LEFT FLANK!" Screamed Augustine and Fifteen sets of glowing spheres were called to action.

The members of the Doomed all struck the same target simultaneously, the deafening shock wave created by the multiple effects only served to make the obliteration that much more surreal.

Terri's boarders, plus Cindy and Allyssa, quickly took their places between sets of spheres, placing hands on them and quickly recharging them.

Nethizar turned to his son, "They have the upper hand!" he yelled. "Order your vortex to attack them."
 

 
Terri was holding on to the creature's enormous digit as the room she had been banished to had begun to crumble and shattered just as she reached the relative safety of its outstretched hand.

"Thanks, big fella!" Terri said as she watched the pieces dissolve into the ether. "Those digs were getting a bit cramped anyway."

The only sense she had left, her sight, now had an unobstructed view of the goings on outside her body. It was like watching some kind of strange science fiction battlefield.

Strange colored flares shot back and forth across the room, some even striking near her, but she didn't care.

"So the fight for me has finally begun," she mused outloud. "Am I really worth all this trouble?"
 

 
Augustine watched Nethizar roaring outward in frustration, only to see four swordman having to brace themselves against a force wall that struck them all simutaniously.

"CINDY!" she screamed. "DID YOU SEE THAT?"

Her answer came in the form of harpy-like screech as a concussion wave blasted forth from Cindy's open mouth. It struck another of Nethizar's henches and the shield flittered for a moment, just in time for another blast from the combined order of the Twice Doomed.

Nethizar was too busy witnessing the death of another of his followers to notice his son phasing through his shield and stepping up behind him.

"The battle goes badly!" Nethizar called to his son, not realizing his proximity.

"Yes," His son nearly whispered back into his father's ear. "Yes it does."

As the steel of the ornate dagger slipped between his ribs, piercing his lung, Nethizar smiled before turned to his son.

"I knew you had it in you boy!" Nethizar managed to weeze out before collapsing.
 

 
 
End of Chapter 25
 
 
To Be Continued...

 

Accidental Magic
Chapter Twenty-Six: End Game
 
By Allystra Krane

---

The blood dripped off the blade as Carl stood over the body of his father, the man known as Nethizar.

It then started flowing up into and took residence along small channels etched into the blade which then began to glow.

Augustine saw this and cursed. "That better not be what I think it is."

"How much you want to bet that he'll be that much more hard to stomp?!" Boris hollered. "I thought that blade was in the vault?"

"Obviously not," Augustine snapped back. "If we make it through this, I'll present it myself as a gift."

"What's that thing do anyway?" Cindy asked.

"It's an Old Magic dagger," Lexi said as she came up behind her, "it allows the user to steal the powers from anyone the blade kills."

"You knew this was going to happen?!" Augustine cried out at Lexi.

"Not this exactly," Lexi replied coldly, "but I believed the possibility existed for something big to happen."

Augustine stood there, the multitude of users in front of her blasting away at Carl's shield, and not having any effect.

She looked down toward the floor and spoke softly to herself. "Agatha, you've been pushing us all along, steering this ship. What should I do now?" she asked just as the noise of spell fire seemed to fade into the background.

A voice Augustine had not heard in over ten years reached her ears.

"Hello Auggie."

"Agatha," Augustine muttered.

"Now now," continued the voice, "Why so formal?"

"You stopped being my good friend the day you died!" Augustine snapped back. "How am I hearing this?"

"Your watch," Agatha's disembodied voice answered. "I trapped the inside of the back cover. You've worn it faithfully since I gave it to you five years ago. I didn't even have to make you want to wear it."

"It Is a rather nice..., Wait, we don't have time!" Augustine exclaimed. "Why are you talking to me directly?"

"Augustine," Interrupted Agatha's voice again, "If you are hearing this, then the battle has gone awry.

"My own heart has yet to heal from my own loss at that fool's hand and I cannot bear the thought of what Terri's death would mean to my Daughter."

"Please understand that I do not come to this decision lightly. What I have done is questionable at best but I felt I was left with no other choice."

"What did you do?" Augustine asked.

"Break the fifth seal," came the voice solomnly. "I hoped it would not have to come to this..."

"The seal on Terri?" Augustine asked, only to find herself back in the midst of the battle.

Carl was reflecting anything and everything that came at him, including valiant sword strikes from both groups of Knights.

"What seal?" Boris asked her from only a few feet away. "I saw you talking to yourself but I couldn't hear it until the last sentence.

But Augustine ignored him and stepped forward, only to be joined by Lexi.

"You got the order," she asked. "Didn't you?"

"What does it hold back?"

"A force that Agatha contained within her since birth."

"That doesn't inspire me," Augustine replied.

"Nor should it," Lexi added. "But she did it and we should take advantage of every opportunity we're given."

Augustine nodded and bellowed as loudly as she could, magic carrying the words clearly to every corner of the room.

"BREAK THE FIFTH SEAL!"

A dozen people nodded in understanding and began incantations in earnest. The Royal Knights backed off their direct assault and took up defensive positions in front of the casters.

~*~

Terri could hear the angry buzzing noise getting louder, as if a nest of bees was getting irritated just behind her.

She suspected that it had something to do with the sudden fall off in the battle she was witnessing.

Suddenly, she heard a cracking noise and turned to see the solid wall that contained the monster breaking and flaking away.

"Wait until they get a load of you!"

"Terri!" a voice exclaimed, causing her to whip around to face it's source.

"Gramma?" Terri choked out, the incorporeal form of Agatha floated in front of her.

"I locked it away to make it stronger, to make you stronger. It is the perfect defense, for it cannot be controlled. Give yourself up to it, let it run free."

"What is it?" Terri asked.

"Rage," was the response just as the creature who held her so gently in it's hand broke loose and tore away from the wall, letting loose a roar that resonated of trees being torn apart and bashed against the rocks at the bottom of a thunderous waterfall.

Terri was brought up to its chest, and she turned toward the battle once again. As she phased backward into the creature, she managed to utter:

"Time to suck my..."

~*~

The assembled group was taken back as a thunderous crack signaled the seal breaking.

A glowing ring sprang into existence encircling Terri at the waist.

"That isn't like any seal I've ever seen!" Cathryn shouted from near Allyssa. They both had positions near Augustine, taken to keep Terri's friends near the exit, just in case.

"I thought they are all like that?" Allyssa snapped back.

"It should look like any other magic ring, with words or symbols going around the interior of the ring! That one is solid!"

"What's that mean?" Asked Cindy.

Lexi responded, shocking all in hearing range.

"My greatest achievement!" She announced. "I spent almost two years latching things onto that seal, now we get to see if it worked!"

As if on cue, the seal split into two rings, then five, then eleven, all moving into place encircling Terri at different heights.

Carl was watching all of this with all the curiosity and intrigue of a small child at a circus.

The light from the rings were increasing in intensity such that it was akin to looking directly at the sun through half-tilted metal blinds.

A whispy droning charged the air as symbols peeled themselves off the rings and swirled around Terri, passing into her body as matter would break the event horizon and be drawn into a black hole.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Screeched Augustine as she grabbed Lexi and held the girl face to face.

"Run," was Lexi's answer.

"Run?" Augustine asked back, confirming what she heard when the entire building shuddered and air was drawn in through the gaping hole in the wall, picking up speed.

"RUN!" Screamed Lexi over the whistling of the wind. "You will be powerless in seconds, you need to get everyone away NOW!"

Augustine put Lexi down, then turned to see what was happening.

The Plasma that had remained ignited over the various blades was literally bleeding off into the air. Users throughout the room were experiencing a similar effect, visible strands of mana were snaking their way out and funneling themselves toward Terri, spiraling around her in an ever increasing whirlwind.

"The world has never seen anything like her," Lexi said. "Now RUN! Fully realized, her vortex ability should consume all mana for MILES!"

Augustine shouted again, feeling her own mana starting to drift away. "RUN!" She screamed. "FALL BACK!"

Beating a path through the doorway, Augustine swept Cindy up by the shoulders with no effort or magic-enhanced strength and ran across to the small hill that overlooked the warehouse.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Screamed an angry Marcus.

"Our Custodian trapped the seal," replied Augustine, "setting all manner of spells on it. I have no idea what she thinks she was doing."

"Where is she anyway?" Asked Allyssa, "I wanna give her a piece of my mind."

"She's still in there," said Cindy. "When I got thrown over your shoulder, I could see her standing there. She wasn't running."

~*~

Lexi stood facing Carl across the field of battle, her short, shoulder-length hair being whipped about by the fearsome gale blowing in through the gaping hole in the wall directly behind her.

The rings around Terri had all shattered and the resultant glowing pinpoints were all quickly drawn into her now as well.

The mana was becoming thick enough around Terri that it began to take shape.

The swirling plasma formed into egg-shaped spheres that collected together like droplets of Mercury, forming around Terri's still mummified body into large meaty hind legs and the torso of an enormous beast.

As the large body fell forward, giant forlegs formed out of the swirling mist, just in time to catch itself, though the noise made by two giant clawed feet crunching the now irregular concrete beneath it as it touched down, echoed like tumbling rocks through a canyon.

The process continued as neck and head formed and finally completing with an enormous spiked tail that trashed about behind it, setting fire to various random debris by touch alone.

Carl was too stupefied to move as the creature angrily lumbered over toward him. He quickly came to his senses and realized that his life was, once again, in danger.

His spells to subjugate Terri did nothing to slow the beast down. She was hardly visible inside its abdomen, suspended within the confines of red hot elemental plasma.

Carl braced himself as the creature's mouth opened and he was blasted by a jet of flame that rippled and flowed across his shield. The air that blew across his face felt like he was looking into a pottery Kiln, complete with acrid aroma.

Lexi stood watching the scene unfold in front of her as the monster's unrelenting assult on Carl's shield barely caused it a ripple.

"He's still too strong," she commented outloud.

"What do you plan to do about it?" Answered Augustine, quickly moving to stand abreast of the little girl. "And how come you didn't run like you told us?"

Lexi looked up into Augustine's eyes. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Receiving no response, Lexi turned back to the battle, sighed, then spoke.

"Mother, Carl is too strong. Terri cannot break his barrier alone."

"Who the hell are you talking to?" Augustine asked, but the girl ignored her completely.

"The Twice Damned were likely tapped out before they fled... We have only one option... Direct intervention!" Lexi snapped the last line aloud, still watching the battle in front of her. "Target acquired, fire at will!"

A deafing boom like a lightning bolt striking within inches of the two of them caused Augustine to jump back. This was followed by a demonic howling and the crackling of mortar under assult.

Lexi pointed up to a section of wall, where the symbols that Augustine had drawn years before and had recently engaged, were peeling themselves off in an increasing radius the size of a beach ball.

"Mother is surprised that your wall fortifications are holding up so well," Lexi said. "You should take pride in your handiwork."

"Your mother is doing that?"

"Yes, and in another moment she will break through..."

As she said that, a solid beam rent of the firmament of the universe, howling as if it carried on it the souls of a thousand damned and the diameter of a basketball tore through the remainder of the material of the wall and began its assault on Carl's shield bubble.

The sheer magnitude sent ripples across it causing a psychic backlash that started Carl screaming and clutching his head.

Under the combined effects of the monster that was Terri and the other beam, Carl's shield buckled, contorting like an warped hourglass, the opposite sides coming ever closer together.

"You may want some protection," Lexi commented idly, "that or possibly running like I told you to do before."

Augustine threw up her own shield again, the mana finding itself back to her from across her link to Terri once again.

"That won't be enough..." Lexi said, just as two enormous crytalline structures came into corporeal existence in front of Augustine. Electrical charges arched across the jagged points, then back and forth between them.

"Looks like Agatha was thinking ahead," Lexi said. "Incoming!"

Carl's body, crushed within his own shield bubble, finally gave up its last remaining once of life and the shield buckled and imploded upon the lifeless body inside.

There was a flash of light and an explosion burst forth smashing into the Plasma monster and throwing it across the building.

Augustine watched as the shock waves bounced off of the shield manifested by the crystals in front of her, while Lexi watched it with relative interest.

The walls of the building did not fare as well, and the beam's distruction of Augustine's fortifications left the structure unprotected and it began to crumble, the roof cracking and falling in large chunks, breaking apart against Terri's monster form, that was thrashing about on its back, trying to right itself.

The crystalline structures protected Augustine and Lexi as they watched the beast tearing its way through the jagged debris, now heading directly toward them.

Lexi stepped forward, into the path it was making toward them, bursting through the wall of dust as if it would a more solid structure, roaring and waving its head back and forth.

When it was only a few meters away from Lexi, she opened her arms as if to embrace it.

"I Love You!" She called out.

Those words acted as the most powerful spell, causing the beast to rapidly fall apart.

The head fell off the neck, just before evaporating into mist, with the rest of the body breaking into pieces and disappearing, leaving Terri coughing and vomiting on all fours, the suit having released her limbs.

"Terri!" Screeched Cindy as she ran by Augustine.

"Didn't I tell you to stay back?" Augustine snapped, just as Allyssa and Kristi ran past. "Doesn't anyone listen to their elders anymore?"

Terri had fallen over onto one side and fainted, her eyes rolled up in her head.

Allyssa was glowing a near solid white, trying to heal Terri unsuccessfully. Terri made no motion or sound and remained still, laying peacefully in the puddle of her own sick.

Lexi stopped Allyssa by putting a hand on her shoulder. "She's okay, just incredibly tired. She just channeled a physical form from Elemental Plasma and went on a rampage. She won't wake up right now."

Allyssa nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes.

Augustine grabbed Lexi from behind and hefted the girl to look eye to eye again.

"You have much to answer for," Augustine snarled. "I didn't sign up for all of this. We didn't ask to be part of this little plan of yours and I swear I will get every little bit of information out of you before you can get away."

Lexi smiled as she held up on hand and it began to crack and disintegrate.

"I'm sorry but I knew you try this so I made a made a stand in. You notice I never cast anything in the battle?"

"You Bitch! I will find you and GUT YOU LIKE A FISH!" Augustine screamed.

"But before I dissolve," began the sand golem that had been masquerading as Lexi, "I want to let you know that I agree that the price to save Terri is, indeed, too high. But her future isn't yet secure, meaning the price... Has yet to be paid.." She eeked out before her body fell apart and crumbled to a heap of sand at Augustine's feet.

 

Accidental Magic
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Feedback Loop
 
By Allystra Krane

---

Amid the rubble that had, only an hour earlier, been an abandoned warehouse stood several dozen people, centered around an unconscious young woman who's head lay cradled in the lap of another.

Augustine looked over the situation. She could see the upper half of Nethazar's remains sprawled out over the ground, his legs crushed under a large piece of the ceiling. "Its a good thing he was already dead," she thought to herself.

Cindy had helped Allyssa roll Terri over so she wouldn't be lying in her own sick. Terri's hair surprised most as literally nothing stuck to it and, even unconscious, repelled the settling dust and any of her vomit that tried to hang on for the ride.

"What was that?" Cindy asked. "I saw this giant red glowing monster in here just as the building went down."

"Of fang, of beak, of scale and claw," Boris began to chant; his words like a morbid nursery rhyme "of wing and fury, its crimson breath will ablate all."

"A Dragon!" Cindy exclaimed. "Here?"

"Terry Was the dragon," Augustine replied. "or formed one around herself. But she didn't even seem to be aware she had done it."

"The Winston Blood was thick with dragons," Marcus idly commented. "I guess we have a new phenomenon to explain later."

"She's got dragon blood!" Cindy again squeaked out in exclamation.

"As do I," Augustine retorted. "Almost everyone here can trace their lineage back to a dragon or two. I've got five in my family tree and it shows in my temper."

"I thought they were a myth," was Cindy's next comment.

"You think the modern age was the first to discover Dinosaur bones?" Marcus snapped back.

"Whoa whoa," Cindy said. "Dragons, now dinosaurs? You going to tell me that medieval wizards 'Made' dragons from dug up dino bones?"

"More or less," Allyssa explained. "Now that you're part of the 'Club' we should get you reading about the history that the rest of the world was made to forget."

"But how did dragons..." Cindy began but was interrupted by Marcus.

"The sun is starting to rise and we still need to investigate that hill where that blast came from."

"Forget the hill," said Augustine. "Clean up here. We don't need to see that hill. The custodian told me who did it."

"Where is Lexi anyway?" Cindy asked.

Augustine kicked a pile of dust at her feet. "Clever girl had a golem in her stead during the battle. But she let slip that her mother was responsible for the blast from that hill. But to wield that kind of power, takes the ability to draw that power first."

"Ladies and gentlemen of the twice Doomed," Augustine called out as she turned to face those around her, "The worst may not yet be over. We have another vortex."

She turned back to look at the unconscious Terri. "...and deep inside me is sure that they are one and the same."

---

(Only moments before)

Terri had never felt so alive, her body cradled in the belly of the beast but her spirit could feel the concrete crunching under the massive limbs and her tail swinging back and forth as the creature made entirely of elemental plasma, a substance comprised of liquid mana woven seemingly from the ether, began its assault on the man who was trying to control her.

His voice urging her to stop echoed through her head but it was overshadowed and lost in the depths of her psyche like a single crying child in a basement building during the London bombings of World War two, too much noise made it impossible to understand.

The beast had been unleashed, a terrible creature that had strained and struggled in vain against bonds it could not break until its captor released it, knowing that the struggle itself had strengthened it beyond all reasonable proportions.

Terri had willingly submitted to it and even the greatest mental control powers could not stop a dragon fueled by pure rage, much less the man who sought to stop her.

Then the other blast stuck her target, a purposeful discharge of massive power who's energy signature even the beast recognized instantly.

The dragon could not understand that Terri had no twin sister but knowing that someone else as powerful and determined also wanted her enemy gone, only added more fuel to the already impressive fire and its own assault renewed with fierce vigor.

The flash and explosion as Carl's body was crushed beneath its own protection threw Terri back and she quickly righted herself and charged back in, mad for having been struck at all.

She could not find the man, but she spotted Lexi and Augustine through the smoke, the energy of the two large crystals floating in front of them giving them away.

No longer caring, only wanting to harm someone, Terri charged directly toward them, Drawing in air for another blast from her enormous maw.

However, Lexi's words rang through her ears clear as a bell, and all the rage and hate dissipated like an afternoon mist and Terri could no longer hold herself together.

It suddenly felt as though her head was severed but instead of not registering her body, she couldn't see or feel her head for a moment as her senses momentarily switched back to her own body.

The extreme vertigo as the dragon disassembled itself piece by piece brought Terri back to consciousness on her hands and knees just in time to see Lexi's face full of love and concern, only for Terri's stomach to upturn and her brain to lose the fight to stay awake and she blacked out as she saw her own puddle of sick getting closer.

---

Terri found herself in a a seemingly endless white space again.

"Oh great," She muttered as she stood up. "Just in time to fall into my own vomit. I don't wanna die like half the musicians from the seventies!"

"Don't worry," came a eerily familiar voice from behind her. "Allyssa and Cindy are rolling you over. You'll be fine."

Terri turned around to see a near perfect doppleganger of herself with a friendly smile on her face.

"Who are you?" Terri asked. "Another fragment of my personality here to point out how much of a mental case I am?"

The other Terri held up her left arm, and the hand faded, leaving a stump, only to return a moment later.

"I'm not one of Your personalities," she answered as the realization struck Terri. "You may call me 'Mother.'"

Terri's hands were around the other's throat in a flash, only to have her hands gently removed by another pair taking a hold of her wrists and holding her as the other backed away.

"You'll find that neither of us can hurt each other here," Lexi's Mother calmly announced. "I'm here to talk with you."

"I thought I beat you," Terri snapped.

"I will explain," Lexi's mother said, "but there is a comfy chair behind you. You want to sit down so we can talk like two civilized adults?"

"But but but..." Stammered Terri. She was unable to understand what had just happened. She turned around and there was, just as promised, a very plush-looking chair. She numbly turned around and sat down, only to see her doppleganger lounging in another chair directly across from her only a few feet away.

"Calm down sweetie," Lexi's mother said. "I just want to talk with you."

Terri just sat there, her eyes as wide as her open mouth. "I thought I beat you! Didn't I beat you?"

"Emphasis on 'Thought' because that is exactly what you needed to think."

"Why did you let me think that?" Terri asked. "I'm so confused right now."

"That's to be expected, but it is also the reason why I'm here talking to you. Ask me any question and I'll answer it."

"Do I really get pregnant with Lexi?"

"No, I did. You have had a different set of experiences and some of the knowledge of what I did wrong. That practically makes us different people."

"Except that I feel like I'm looking in a mirror," Terri said, "without the evil grin of course."

"Would it help things if you called me 'Mother?'" She replied. "I did offer a few moments ago."

"Mother?" Terri snapped back. "Please don't tell me I give birth to myself."

"Lexi has known who you were relative to me before she could even talk," Mother said, closing her eyes and letting the smile fall from her face. "She has never once called me by name, possibly to shield herself from acknowledging that a version of you grew up into me."

"I'm suddenly warming up to 'Mother' after all," Terri said. "Because I'm just as desperate to make sure I don't become you either."

"Then you and I are in agreement," Mother replied. " I want you to learn from my mistakes And my triumphs."

"But what about knowing the future changes the future and all that?" Terri implored.

"Clues Terri," replied Mother again. "It was a clue. You recognized it and took action, which was to beat me up. Admittedly it was a farce but you needed to think otherwise at the time."

"For the last few days, your thoughts have been open to me and when you started to seriously consider infiltrating the other side, I knew you needed a push in that direction. Then you would have, and did in fact, learned Lexi had already beaten you to that end."

"She then wanted to know why you did what you did, which is why I had to convince you that you had the drop on me."

"But why?" Terri asked. "Why are you going over her head? Wouldn't it work better if you two were on the same page?"

"But we aren't on the same page," Mother replied. "Not on every issue anyway."

"Tell me something Terri," she asked solemnly. "If I knew of a way that Lexi would safely survive the paradox wave crashing and exist on the other side, would you love her as your own? Give her everything I couldn't?"

There was no hesitation in Terri's voice. "Of course."

Instead of continuing, her eyes closed tightly again and she wrapped her arms around herself. "I have searched for years in vain. There is only one way to survive a paradox and I can't and won't ask you to do that."

"I'm confused."

"You have seen what I've been through and you know that I am as close to death as utterly possible and you think that I Want It This Way? I could not and will not ask you to willingly be assulted and shot in an alleyway in Nevada for my own personal behalf."

"Lexi said..."

"Lexi has no idea we are still talking nor is she aware of my true intentions. She takes risks that she otherwise would have avoided if she planned to survive."

"Why do you hide?"

"Lexi is more precious to me than anything else. I would do anything if it meant that she would continue on past the paradox, but the decision is no longer mine to make."

"Can I ask you a question?" Terri asked, hesitantly and without confidence. "Does Lexi know you love her?"

"I haven't been there for her as much as I should," came the reply. "It wouldn't matter anyway. Our mother treats her better than I ever did."

"When I became a pregnant woman, did I join the club where I became unable to answer simple questions?" Terri snapped. "Let me try this again. Have you told Lexi how much you Love her?"

"No, I haven't!" Mother snapped back. "Are you happy?"

"You keep away from her!" Came another voice. "You have no right!"

Terri looked around Mother to see two more versions of herself slowly walking toward them.

One male and one female Terri walking somewhat jerkily toward her.

"Who the heck are you?" Terri asked.

"Terri, meet the chorus," Mother said with a wave of her hand. "I didn't realize that they had also made the trip from my head to yours, but since it happened to me, I'm not exactly surprised.

"Looks more like a duet to me," Terri idly commented. "Just curious why they are walking like they are storing ears of corn..."

"Ahh, well that is because those two are actually each a chorus of hundreds of voices that have condensed themselves down to just remembering what mistakes they have made. They all have to agree if they want to get anything done, but because 'we' have never been very logical or concise, they are like robots running off old 286 processors."

"Hundreds?" Terri asked, confused. "How fragmented am I?"

"You misunderstand," Lexi's mother said. "They are all the result of failed time loops, as am I. I'm trying to make sure you don't doom yourself to repeat this also."

"How many times have 'We' done this?"

"We do not have an answer," replied the chorus in unison after a moment. "We cannot... count our individuals as we now are."

"Holy CRAP!" Terri cried out as she buried her head into her hands. "I'm so doomed."

Mother shook her head. "Only, and especially, if you listen to these idiots. They thought I would be the one to break the cycle, but instead I made most of the biggest mistakes. But you can learn from me. Because even through all that, I have not lived my life completely in vain."

"How you figure?" Terri asked with a muffle, her face still covered by her hands.

"It's because I figured out the First Mistake," replied the woman.

Both sets of eyes on the chorus turned to look at Mother.

"That's right bitches," Mother said with a smile but without ever turning to acknowledge them, "I figured it out. None of you got it, no matter how many times you kept going. That is all about to change."

"Terri" Mother began speaking directly to her again, "You must understand that in order to save yourself, you have to save the world first."

"Sounds like a bad Television plot."

"If you try to hide from the world like I did, you'll find you get bit on the Ass by bad luck and crazy."

"If you're crazy, why should I listen to you?"

"So you don't make my mistakes, so you don't make the first mistake."

"What is the first mistake?" Terri asked. "And why is it so important?"

"Since I learned about these two about the same time as you," Lexi's mother idly thumbed at the chorus, "I decided to spend time researching the subject of paradoxes."

"You Lie!" said the Male Chorus.

"You broke into Magical Libraries and stole books!" Screeched the female.

"Never left a trace until the one time I was caught in the act..."

"What happened?" Terri asked.

Lexi's mother held up her left arm, her hand once again replaced by a stump.

"Oh,"

"I wasn't thinking clearly at the time," she began. "I had spent the previous year in a cave in Brazil, living like a hermit and eating nuts and berries and whatever I could hunt. I had sworn off magic because the user world would pick it up and track me down."

"I had read all the books I had on the subject and was needing more. Little did I know, the poison from a spider bite I had received the week before was still coursing through my blood and affecting my judgement."

"I trekked twenty miles from my hideout to keep its location secret and then jumped to an archive of magic scrolls in Germany, or maybe Poland. Honestly I don't know or care and it really doesn't matter."

"Here I was, fever sweating and delusional, trying to break into a magically protected library."

"Suffice to say I set off alarms and got a whole group of people chasing after me all over the planet. I tried to lose them in the Desolace of Nevada and that is where the memory you saw of my losing my hand came from."

"When did you get pregnant with Lexi?" Terri asked

"Not long after," she replied. "I went to a nearby town, not sure which one, got my arm bandaged, but the poison was going to kill me, they had nothing to help me by that point."

"I was still weary from blood loss and the hallucinations were getting worse when I tried to leave the area and stumbled into the alley where..."

Terri watched with interest as her doppleganger closed her eyes once more and rested her forehead on her palm, her elbow braced on her thigh, unable to complete her narration.

"What happened After then?" Terri asked. "You got away didn't you?"

"After I lost control of my rage and somehow, by miracle, no one noticed a monster made from the aether smearing the skull and brains of those thugs across the alley walls..."

"Miracle?" Terri asked, glaring as skeptically as she felt.

"Shut up," 'Mother' said. "You might be mad at Grandma, but she loved me. Enough to try and change things to make My life better too, not just Yours."

"So what happened afterward?" Terri asked again, trying to return them on topic.

"You can already see the flowing lines of life force in a person," she replied. "Fairly certain its a side effect of being able to draw massive amounts of mana from everything around you. When you wake up you'll notice that Lexi improved on that process, using knowledge that I had to work for..."

"STEAL is more like it," the chorus rang out in unison, interrupting the explanation.

"Hush, You are all just sore because you didn't think of it first."

"Anyway, the doctors had restored some clarity to my mind, the medications I had received had slowly subsided the poisons effect long enough to see that I was growing a life inside me."

"How come your suit didn't protect you?" Terri asked. "Can spiders and snakes bite through the suit?"

"I've never had a symbiote," came Mother's reply. "Neither have any of them," she added with a motion toward the chorus. "None of us had Allyssa, nor did we have Cindy or Kristi or Cathryn to help us. Augustine only chose to help Me because of who I was but we had never met before that day."

"Lexi set Allyssa on the path to converge with yours because I could see her potential as a spirit caster and Cindy for her unique mind. I thought little of those two but she instead saw a chance and took the risk."

"Allyssa got you into Augustine's headlights and she had time to actually see you as a person. You showed her how determined and brave you were despite your handicap."

"So I've already changed my future?"

"A bit but the paradox won't kick in until you either go back, or stay here."

"Go back?" Terri asked. "As in back in time? Is that the first mistake?"

"No, without you Agatha will not have the power to shunt you as a baby. You actually have to go back and seal your younger self up in order to survive until now."

"So I Have to go back," Terri asked.

"If you want to have any chance of being here now you do."

"We also agree," added the chorus. "We will not, cannot survive as a child vortex."

"So not going back in time is the first mistake?" Terri asked, now confused. The more information she had, the harder it was to figure out what was happening or had happened.

"I recognize that face," said Mother seemingly able to deduce the confusion Terri was having.

"The first mistake is the point where the timeline diverges and all paths on either side of the divergence are so fundamentally different, that nothing can be accurately predicted before hand."

"If staying put versus going back were the first mistake, then we wouldn't be here."

"So what IS the first mistake?" Terri snapped. "You still haven't told me!"

"That's because you got some more information than any of us ever got. There is something you need to do when you go back, something so important and so drastic that the whole world will be affected."

---

Terri awoke quietly, her eyes opened and looked around without moving her head, tensing any muscle or even a change in her breathing. Years of constant pain served her well, allowing her to sleep without ever moving.

The room looked like a small bedroom used as an office in someone's home. She was draped over a comfortable, but worn, couch with her feet over the arm rest. It almost felt like home, even if it didn't smell quite right.

Legs shifted and dropped off the arm and she was sitting up with a practiced ease.

The door wasn't locked and she barely opened it before squeezing between it and the wall jam, shutting it as silently as she had opened it.

Her suit consumed her boots, leaving only a flexible covering on her legs and feet, much like a pair of tights, so she could creep along the hallway better.

The old house made no protest as her feet padded upon the carpet up against one wall, their owner precariously balancing along with great skill, placing one foot deftly and quickly in front of the other.

She peeked into a doorway with a single eye, finding it empty, she continued past.

The stairway at the end of the hall had a landing and turned halfway down the flight, forcing her to stop to contemplate it's corners.

Just as she was about to take another step however, a voice rang out from the bottom of the stairs.

"I've been the head of the council since you were eight, not to mention raising two children of my own. I have had practice making traps that were undetectable, so stop sneaking about and come down for breakfast."

Terri trudged down the steps with all the pouting of a small child having lost a game. Her boots having reformed as she lifted each foot in turn.

The stairway emptied directly into Augustine's kitchen where she was sliding eggs off a griddle onto plates with the help of an ordinary spatula.

Allyssa and Cindy were occupying chairs at the table in the adjoining room. They were already several forks into pancakes topped with whipped cream and berries.

When Terri saw this she pulled out an empty chair and plopped down into a position holding her chin up on her palm with her fingers curled over her lower lip.

"Nice to see you care about me," Terri commented idly. "I'll have some breakfast too if that's okay."

"You got more sleep than we did," Augustine said. "We're awake only because the mana link we made to you the other day is still active."

"Nice place you have," Terri commented. Augustine's home looked nothing like she imagained it would.

The high ceiling allowed space for decorations on top of the counters, to which Augustine had set an old milk can on either end flanking a row of painted plates resting against their stands.

The sitting room beyond had two large plush reclining chairs in front of a large picture window, one with an unfinished knitting project gently draped over the arm. The far wall had photos and an Americana-style art print.

This was very unlike the darkened, arcane style Terri had expected. No purple velvet on the walls; no bookshelves full of dusty tomes or cauldrons in giant fireplaces.

Noticing the photo on the wall of Augustine and her family taken a few years before, she nearly asked but stopped when she remembered what Susan Meyers from that bar told her just before she left on the world tour.

"Now that I think about it," Terri mentioned as she moved her arm for Augustine to set down a plate with eggs and pancakes for her, "I have no idea what day it is anymore."

"Saturday," responded Allyssa. "The school thought you skipped school until they saw your house on the news."

"So where am I, officially anyway?"

"Hospital," responded Augustine. "A Special clinic out of town. From the sound of things, this was a pretty regular occurrence."

Terri looked up so that their gaze met. She could feel the older woman's intensity through her expression alone.

"When Grandma sealed me up when I was a baby," Terri mused as she reached for the bowl of strawberries, "She goofed and I think it caused parts of me to become female. This side effect didn't really start playing havoc until puberty."

"I think I was more girl than boy and my body's cells were literally waging war with each other. It was quite painful, which I hope helps you understand my tolerance."

She took a bite, chewed then continued, "Living with a condition that made your skin feel like second-degree burns and that a dozen doctors over half a dozen states couldn't diagnose much less treat means that you miss lots of school in order to go see yet another doctor you need to explain your condition to."

Terri started into her food, unaware that Cindy and Allyssa had both stopped eating from what she had said.

After a few moments Terri looked up and smiled. "Get over yourselves," she said. "It's all better now. I'm healthy and only mildly emotionally disturbed."

"That doesn't make me feel any better," Cindy meekly replied. "Dad really wants to see you again and I think you should go."

Terri kept smiling, the flavor of the strawberries seemed ever so much sweeter now as she slowed down to enjoy each bite. She just kept smiling as the contents of her plate slowly disappeared into her mouth.

Just as she raised the last dripping bite to her lips, she stopped and a worried look appeared on her face.

Augustine also suddenly turned to face the same wall that Terri was. "Who could that..."

"That would be Lexi," Terri said as she stood up, "and her mother."

"Its time," Came Lexi's voice from the top of the stairwell. "We cannot wait any longer."

Terri shot up the stairs as if her feet and posterior were on fire, leaving the others to ponder before they too took off after her.

Terri saw Lexi standing in the doorway of the room she had woke up in, at the other end of the hall.

"Here?"

"It must be here and now," Lexi replied. "Mother expended too much mana in Budapest and she will be unable to help you if we wait much longer."

Terri was now sliding past Lexi into the room, only marginally aware of what she had said. She wanted to truly see what she had become.

With diseased scalp exposed where half of her hair had simply fallen out and wearing a robe that Terri imagined she had stolen from a fourteenth-century Franciscan monk, probably to hide the worst of her affliction, stood 'Mother', the hideous thing that Terri herself had become. The greenish tint of her skin nearly glowed and Terri swore that one eye was already decayed and shriveling."

I like what you've you done with your hair," Terri said with a smirk. "Was it your idea alone, or did the chorus convince you to see a new stylist?"

Terri watched as her words sunk in and for a moment she swore her ghoulish self smiled, then winked at her.

"Terri," Lexi began, returning to the conversation, "I'd like you to meet my Mother."

"We've met before, though I can say you looked better," Terri said to which Mother made no motion or response.

"I'm sorry Terri," Lexi said, "but when you're using mana to keep yourself alive, then have to expend a whole bunch it takes its toll on what's left of your body. She can't speak anymore, which will make what happens next at least quieter, if not less disturbing."

Mother stiffened suddenly as Lexi took control over her body. Mana began flowing in through the walls and collecting in seemingly liquid blobs that floated like about the room like water in the weightlessnes of space.

"You'll need this!" Augustine called as she stepped into the room, grabbed Terri's wrist and stuffed a spikey crystal into her her open palm.

Terri turned to look at the older woman who explained. "Forgot to mention but it was my birthday today. That little gift I told you about was in the hallway instead, I figured it was important that I needed to open it. Unfortunately this is all that was inside and I am certain it is for you. It's the most perfect piece of temporal crystal I've ever seen. Use it as a focus for your spell and it will take you whenever she wants you to."

"Thank you," Terri said as she turned back to face Mother. "Are we ready?"

"Unfortunately," Lexi said. "Mother would not approve of what I am about to tell you."

"Terri, Mother believes that I am the whole reason this time loop needs to happen. I believe... otherwise."

"I am nothing but a mistake and knowing how I came about should give you a reasonable chance to avoid making it."

Terri nodded, then lifted a small stone with a chain off from around her neck, and let it fall to the floor. "I have everything I need to know now, so I don't need this anymore."

Terri then swept Lexi up into her arms. "I will never forget you," Terri said.

"If you see me again when the wave crashes," Lexi asked, "would you hold me until I fade away?"

"I promise," answered Terri as she set the girl down and focused on the crystal in her hand. She inhaled and pulled in mana as hard as she could.

The strands and clumps filled the air and the room was soon occupied by substance so dense that to those actually looking, it was as though they had been eaten by a house-sized gelatin dessert.

Terri's eyes were closed as she clutched the crystal in both hands and it began to glow. Its light intensified quickly and the room was bathed as if a star was in the room for only a moment as Terri and all the mana in the room seemingly imploded into the point where the crystal's light was emanating and disappeared.

---

Accidental Magic
by Allison Krane

Chapter 28: Feedback Distortions
 

---

 
Terri's arrival was accompanied by a shock wave akin to an explosive going off and the contents of the room were pushed away from her including shattering the windows and throwing the couch up onto one side.

Other than the lack of fading on the couch, there was little evidence to suggest she was now in the same room only twenty-two years earlier.

It was the same home-office as before though the pictures on the wall were newer, even one that Terri recognized as having a picture of Augustine and Agatha in it.

"Terri!" snapped Agatha Winston, Terri's own grandmother, breaking her out of the trance as she popped into the room.

"Gramma?" Terri asked, tears forming in the corner of her eyes. "I can't believe its you!"

"No time for hugs; take my hand!"

Terri reached out, then stopped. "No, we aren't going anywhere," she said calmly.

"But Augustine is coming..."

"I know and that's why I'm staying right where I am."

At that moment Augustine kicked open the door screeching "Get out of my house!"

The woman's tirade ended abruptly as she recognized her friend in the pale light. "Agatha?"

"I'm sorry Augustine," a now shaking nervous Agatha said, the words tumbling out rather meekly.

Terri recognized the nervousness and turned toward Augustine herself. Even startled, the woman was a bastion of confidence.

"Augustine Meyers," Terri began. "Its nice to see you again. Sorry about the loud noise that woke you. I promise I'll find a way to pay for the windows."

"Do I know you? I am quite certain I would have remembered your face had we met."

"I've had the chance to talk with you before, but for you this will be the first."

"Terri!" squeaked Agatha. "What are you doing?"

Terri ignored her grandmother's plea. She instead faced Augustine with determination. "Augustine Meyers," she began again, "My name is Terri D'angelo and I am the grandchild of Agatha Winston but I will not even be born for another five years..."

She paused for a moment. "...and I am a Vortex."

Augustine stepped back until she could slide down the wall onto her posterior. She had lost all of her demeanor, now sitting there in shock.

"Would you like proof? Terri asked.

"No, I believe you," the older woman replied with a slight quiver in her voice. "But why are you telling me this?"

"Because I need your help and because you need to know the truth. Because I'm not the only only one in this room with a secret you need to hear."

"Terri, what are?" Agatha began to ask but was interrupted.

"Tell her or I will Gramma," Terri snapped. "I will not let you make the same mistake again!"

"Tell me what?" Augustine asked, regaining some of her composure.

"I'm... a precog," stammered Agatha. "All my life and I'd planned to keep it secret until I died."

Terri looked down at Augustine. "She is afraid to tell you and you yourself once explained to me why."

Augustine nodded as she stood up. "So you came back in time because you need my help?"

"Not just yours, but you are the first."

"I see," Augustine said as she motioned for them to follow through the door. "It sounds we have much to talk about."
 

---

 
Lexi was standing over a spot on the floor where Terri had been moments before. Her tiny hands placed as if she were warming them over an invisible fire.

"There," Lexi said as her eyes snapped open. "She made a major change in the time line. The ripples are going to build as they expand forward."

"What did she do?" asked Cindy.

"... I don't know," Lexi said as she looked to her right upon the the now truly dead corpse of her mother.

Everyone in the room save Lexi gasped as the body exploded into a dissapating mist with a sound like a an old latex balloon popping.

"Is that a good sign or a bad one?"

"It's a sign that I'm next!" said Lexi, who then turned to face Augustine.

"You said you wanted answers so here is your chance," she said as she pulled a small teardrop-shaped stone on a chain from her pocket. "This is Agatha and she will be able to explain everything to you when this is over. This is why I could be the custodian."

Augustine held out her hand and let the child pool the chain into her palm, but was stunned when Lexi breathed a spell causing her fingers to snap over the stone and clutch it tightly.

Lexi then stepped over in front of Allyssa. "I have another one that I'll need your promise to get to Terri after the wave hits."

"It's you," Cindy commented. "Isn't it?"

"Promise me that no matter where you find yourself on the other side of the Paradox, you'll find a way to get that to Terri!" Lexi shouted.

"Yes," Allyssa shouted back. "I promise."

Lexi pulled another chain up from around her neck and Allyssa took it and again the spell was cast clamping her hand shut as well.

"The spell sets the space inside your hand as sealed away from time for the next ten minutes. Hopefully that will be long enough..." Lexi explained but was interrupted as a blinding flash of light overtook the room.
 

---

 
The group awoke to find themselves in the same room as before, the feeling of being out of place now overtaking them.

Lexi hopped to her feet as quickly as she had opened her eyes.

Not even taking a moment to observe the change in their surroundings, Lexi threw open the door and moved to step into the hallway, but her heel never reached the floor before she stopped.

Standing at the other end of the hallway was Terri, her arms crossed over her chest.

At first glance Augustine didn't notice anything different about her except her clothes, but that quickly changed.

She realized Terri was purposely balanced on her left foot, while the right sat poised on the ball of the foot.

Augustine realized the girl must have studied martial arts.

Looking into Terri's eyes over a pair of small rose-tinted round glasses that perched on the edge of her nose, she no longer saw the brash impulsiveness of youth, but the serenity and maturity that only age could bring.

Further musing and inspection were interrupted as Lexi nearly shouted. "Did It Work?! You didn't make the same mistakes this time?"

Allyssa had watched Lexi go from calm and curious to tearing up and shaking in only a second, just from the sight of this woman.

They all looked toward Terri, waiting for her response.

Not saying a word, she merely uncrossed her arms, revealing her left hand, which then she held out both toward Lexi.

Said girl could no longer contain herself and broke into a dead run down the hallway.

Terri crouched down and caught the girl now visibly crying.

"It worked, it worked," Lexi managed to squeek out between sobs.
"Yes it did, thanks to you and Grandma," Terri quietly responded.

"Do you even remember who I am?" Lexi asked.

"Of course, nothing could ever make me forget you."

"I... don't know... how much time I have left. You promised you wouldn't let go until I disappear."
"I remember that too," responded Terri calmly.

Allyssa, Cindy and Ausgustine froze in place, watching daughter cry into her mother's arms, as though the slightest movement would tear the fabric of reality itself and blink Lexi out of existance that much faster.

Time lost all meaning as the three watched as Terri hold a shaking, bawling mass that was Lexi.

In Allyssa's mind, just to move was tempt the fates that kept Lexi where she was. She didn't even turn her head but could see Cindy and Augustine both locked in place, but both had tears in their eyes. They shared her sentiment.

She could still feel the stone in her left hand that held the copy of Lexi's essence. She knew she could use it to operate a golem and she swore to give it one, no matter what it took.

Augustine, meanwhile was emotionally torn between admiration and grief for Lexi's sacrifice.

This little girl had orchestrated the unthinkable because she cared more for her mother than the wicked wretch that Terri had become was worth.

This little girl had forced herself on a path to undermine her own existance, just on the chance that Terri would change hers.
Now, with her desire made real, Lexi faced her own mortality head on, as a four year old should; crying into her mother's arms.

Augustine could not imagine how strong she had needed to be, but she doubted that she, herself, could have done it.

Augustine vowed that she would never forget the actions of such a young life and would have a memorial made.

Cindy didn't have any notions of what she could do for Lexi, the little girl she had barely known. She wished that she could have gotten more time with her.

Lexi, was now quieting down; her tears having spilled and her heart finally at peace, knowing her machinations worked and her sacrifice had not been in vain.

Terri made no sound, but picked Lexi up, clutching her tightly to her chest. She calmly turned and walked down the steps with everyone now following closely behind, their trances broken. Cindy tried vainly to grasp Lexi's hand that hung off Terri's shoulder.

Augustine watched Terri turn into the kitchen then open a cupboard door, taking out a plate and walking it to the chair on the island in her kitchen.

"You certainly know your way around my kitchen," Augustine commented as she watched Terri open a cookie jar and take out a handfull of chocolate chip cookies. Terri did not acknowledge she even heard her though.

Setting it on the island, Terri set the cookies on the plate, then sat down on one of the stools turning Lexi in her lap, then offered a cookie to the girl.

Lexi hesitated, but took the offered treat with both hands and slowly brought it to her lips. Before it reached her tongue, her bawling began anew. She put her arms back around Terri, letting the cookie muffle her crying as she used her teeth to hold it in place.

"Shhh, don't cry. Everything will be alright," Terri said softly. "I know your life was so hard and mom basically raised you. Will you forgive me?"

Lexi only hugged Terri with vigor, unable to say anything due to both the cookie and her state of mind.

"Maybe Terri's magic is the reason Lexi is still here?" Cindy questioned.

"Well," said Terri as she gently rocked back and forth in the chair, "This is the part where Lexi would tell you that the probability of someone in displacement over a paradox continuing to exist in post-paradox environment is one in ten-thousand to the power of X, where X is equal to the number of seconds after the paradox."

Lexi perked up, her emotions subsiding again. She took the cookie from her mouth and her mood almost completely changed "I don't ever remember sitting down and discussing quantum theory with you."

"No, I suspect you don't," Terri replied. "But at this point your odds of still being here, not counting any outside force, are about one in a number with about thirty-million zeroes behind it; am I right?"

Lexi's eyes were wide, but she nodded slowly.

"Even anything I could do might have, at best, kept you around only a minute,"

"But... how?" Lexi asked fearful of the answer.

"Define Occums Razor," was Terri's only reply.

Suddenly, Lexi broke into tears again. She raised a fist as if she was going to attack her mother, but it was stopped as Terri's hand closed around hers.

"How could you, you said you didn't make the same mistakes."

Terri gently lowered Lexi's hand. "You were never a mistake," she said before kissing the tiny girl on the forehead. "As Bob Ross liked to say, 'We only have Happy little accidents' and you made me happy."

"I told you that nothing could make me forget you. Like everyone else here, the moment I learned that I was your mother and how it happened, I realized why you wanted me to change my future, but I realized also how precious you were to me."

Lexi would not hear it, she tried to tear herself away, but she wasn't strong enough.

"You didn't have to do it!" Lexi nearly screamed. "You didn't have to let yourself get raped!"

"Oh, is that what you're worried about," Terri said with a sudden smile. "You seem to think I would let anyone do things to me. Well, let me tell you, I spent seventeen years planning for you."

It was at this point that a man who looked in his late twenties stepped in from the doorway leading outside. No one had even noticed he was there at that point.

"What's going on... oh wait, it was today?" he exclaimed. "I thought it was tomorrow!"

"No funny business sweetie," Terri calmly replied. "You need to introduce yourself as no one in this room has all their memories back and likely doesn't know who you are."

He slowly stepped forward, now as if on eggshells. He grabbed a short stool and sat on it, so he could look up at Lexi, still sitting on Terri's lap.

"Alexander," he began, but was interuppted.

"Alexander?!" both Cindy and Allyssa exclaimed.

He sighed softly and began again. "Alexander, I am your father."

Lexi appeared to have difficulty processing everything that had just occured.

Augustine looked at Terri, "Why are you so familiar with my house?"

"Because," Terri responded softly. "It's actually my house. You sold it to me three years ago. It'll come come back to you in a minute, at least I hope so anyway."

"But then where do I...?" Augustine's question was suddenly stopped as a familiar pair of arms encircled her at the waist from behind. "We're RV'ing for our retirement dear, or did you forget?"

Augustine spun around, tears in her eyes, to see her husband of forty plus years alive and well.

"Nathan?" she stammered. "But, but how?"

He touched her forehead to his as she started to cry, both of joy and remembering the last two years of her life that had gone without him.

He pulled back and leaned his head to look over her shoulder at Terri, who was still holding her child, who only moments before had her true name outed.

Lexi, or Alexander, looked at the man who just gave her away. "Darth Vader?" she simply asked.

He lowered his head and nodded like he had done something bad.

Cindy elbowed Allyssa, neither of them had moved as both were picking their jaws up from the floor. "Terri has a wedding band on her finger, look."

Allyssa nodded. "You two are married then?" she asked with a soft pout. "I wish I could have been there."

Terri smiled again, "You don't realize you were, both of you actually. Go look at the photo album in the den, it'll come back to you."

The girls both screeched in excitement and ran into the other room.

Augustine turned around, still being held by her husband. "Were we both there too?"

"Of course, you are Alexander's adopted great-grandparents," Terri replied. "Of course, that is just his formal name, for when he's in trouble. You gave this little girl here a different nickname."

"Alexis," replied Augustine. "Short for Alexandra, my mother's name. But why me? Why us?"

"Many time loops," Terri replied, "each one passing on information to the younger version. The sickly, frail one figured it all out and that's why were all here now. If it makes you feel better, she figured out what I needed to do because this last time through, you said something to me on that beach that you had never mentioned in a thousand times before."

"So Agatha told me before she died," Augustine asked.

"I made her spill the beans as soon as I landed in the bedroom twenty-two years ago and blew out all the windows."

"Thank you," Augustine meekly replied.

"In order to save myself, I had to save the world first. For that I needed help. Thank you for letting me stay here after Grandma passed away."

"I half-expected her to come around the corner and yell at me," Augustine commented. "She is really gone?"

"Yes... and no..." Terri replied with a smile as Augustine's hand finally released the stone she was given before the Paradox hit.

"But what I was referring to is that Grandma was big into recycling," Terri remarked as she stroked Alexis' hair.

"Really?" Augustine asked.

"It tends to run in the family," Terri commented. "Myself included. I inherited mine from Uncle Andrew."

Alexis tried to hop down from her mother's lap but Terri wasn't letting her go.

"Uhm, Mom?" Alexander quietly asked, "Can I...?"

"I promised to hold you until you faded, or did I dream that up?" Terri commented.

This statement caused Alexander to lean back into Terri, allowing Terri's arms to fully encircle around her waist.

Terri dipped her head down and inhaled from her daughter's hair. "Besides," Terri added. "I won't be able to chase you down when I'm blind."

The exclaimation "Blind?!" erupted from four different sets of lips, two in the other room as they realized they needed to be back in the conversation.

Alexander twisted her body so she could stare into Terri's eyes, tears in her own.

"Temporarily," Terri chuckled as all the females in the room were now suddenly aware she had never turned to address them directly, but they had all assumed it was because she was doting on Alexander. "In order to make sure everything went to plan this time around, I've been spending so much time seeing the future, I have a nasty case of seer's shroud."

"I didn't know you were a precog," Augustine said as she watched Terri gently kiss Alexander on the forehead before turning the girl back forward and pulling her back into the snug embrace.

"I wasn't," Terri replied. "Not until Grandma passed it on to me when she died."

Augustine lowered her head. "I miss Aggie."

Terri's husband pointed to the glowing stone on the chain that hung off the curled end of Augustine's finger. "Looks like she wants to talk and apologize."

Augustine turned to her husband. "Where are we parked?" He chuckled and walked to a door she didn't recognize and opened it, dragging her with, the door shutting quietly behind them.

"They need a bit of catch up time," Terri said with a smirk. "He Was the only person who could tame her personality.

"So you stayed here with Augustine all these years?" Cindy asked.

"Well," Terri began, "Not the whole time, but I had the guest bed and a warm meal for most of it."

Allyssa turned to the Terri's husband. "I don't know you, I'm Allyssa. I don't remember getting your name."

"Rene Olson, and I was told to expect this."

"Are you Gay?" Allyssa asked quite bluntly, causing Cindy to squeak in protest.

Rene lowered his head a moment in defeat, then took a deep breath before answering.

"Its not a simple yes, but I suppose 'More so when Sober,' might describe it better."

"You are obviously aware that she is a magic user, else I'm sure you would have freaked out by now."

"Of course," Rene responded. "We have a very open relationship."

"So you know..." Allyssa began but was interrupted.

"When I was very young," Rene began, "the man who sired me left my mother to raise me alone. She worked two jobs and was gone more than she was around. I suppose I transferred my anger onto her, but she was the only one there for me at all."

"In a night of drinking, somehow I managed to gain a courage and strength to ravage this beauty in my presence."

"Let tell this part," Terri interrupted. "I knew in only a few hours, but I spent nearly two weeks avoiding Rene after becoming pregnant. It came as a shock to me when he went down on one knee and promised to be a faithful husband and father."

"She asked me if I loved her," Rene added. "I admit that her question surprised me in a way I should have seen coming. Four years later I can safely say I love her in ways I never thought possible."

Terri was simply smiling as she laid the side of her head against Alexander.

"Can you two make it home by yourselves?" Rene started, "I think it's getting late.

Cindy nodded, "I think we'll manage."

"Is it safe to teleport from inside the house?" Allyssa asked. "I don't have to worry about traps or anything?"

Terri chuckled, "I suppose you wouldn't know about the hallway yet. Go through the door that Augustine and her husband went through, then second door on the right."

"Where does it go?" Cindy asked as she stopped with one hand on the knob.

"My mother's house, the basement door into the kitchen."

"How come there isn't a door straight to my house?" Alyssa commented idly.

"You and I both know that your parents would never understand our world," Terri responded. "When you move out of your parent's place, then I'll think about it."

"I'll hold you to it," Allyssa managed as Cindy dragged them through the door, letting it fall shut behind them.

Rene chuckled as he got off his knees and started up the steps before he turned toward his wife and daughter.

"Are you two coming to bed?" He asked.

Terri shook her head. "You go and get some sleep. Alexis and I will be bonding down here on the armchair."

"Sometimes I wonder if you sit and watch us sleep," Rene mused aloud. "What with you hardly ever sleeping yourself."

"Sometimes," Terri answered back, "But never for long. Somewhere the sun is always rising."
 

---

 
End Part One.